


Nieta

by MaeveBrennan



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anxiety, Eye Trauma, Mari Lives AU, Self-Harm, Suicide, Suicide Attempt, True Ending, What-If, and I want to write more, like the entire main plot, way too long
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:42:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaeveBrennan/pseuds/MaeveBrennan
Summary: An AU where Mari was the one to live, and goes through her last three days in Faraway and maybe, Headspace.TW: For all the things that OMORI contains; anxiety, suicide, and self-harm.
Relationships: Hero/Mari (OMORI)
Comments: 19
Kudos: 276





	1. Prologue

Welcome to White Space. You have been living here for as long as you can remember.

The space is quiet. The space is white. A black light bulb hangs overhead. There is a sketchbook on one corner of a spread white blanket. On another is a laptop. Opposite the laptop is a black tissue box. There is a cat soundly sleeping just barely out of reach of the blanket. This is White Space. Plain, stark, hollow, and the home of Nieta. A girl with waist-length black hair and skin as white as paper. Her hair matches her dress, dark and prone to fluttering. If there was any wind here, that is.  
  
Nieta looked at the journal she kept on her laptop. Lately she had been visiting friends. Everything had been okay so far. Today should also be a good day to spend time with her friends. She would need something, though, but she wasn’t sure-

White Space rumbled. Something fell nearby, she was sure. Ah yes, her jump rope. It was a mighty weapon only she could use. Now it was time to cross the only door in White Space. It was usually a finicky thing, locking and unlocking as it pleased, if it bothered to show up at all. She opened the door easily this time.  
  
This was the Neighbor’s Room. It was a lot more cheerful and certainly more populated. You could see the magnificent violet of space with all of its constellations overhead and through cat-shaped holes in the floor. Watching over it all, seemingly unnoticed by everyone except Nieta, was a bear with a smiling face and a softball jersey. On the counter was an unopened present, a toaster, a pillow shaped like the head of a girl, and a picture of somebody familiar. There was also a table, but the only thing on it was a plate with a single bean. In the center of the room were red playing cards, and around those cards were three people. They all had bluish tones to them. One was a girl with a pink bow in her hair, and a nightgown like a too-long t-shirt. Another was a boy with short hair and a checkered, loose tank top, with shorts underneath. The last boy wore a plain shirt with a pocket on the front, shorts, and plush socks that came up to his knees.

“Nieta! We were hoping you’d be here today!” The girl with the bow dashed the cards aside without much thought and ran up to greet the new arrival. This was Aubrey. “We were just about to start another game!” She looked back behind her. “Oh... whoops. Never mind.”

“Aww, man... What the heck, Aubrey!?” The boy in the checkered shirt called out. He was Kel. “You messed up all the cards! I was winning, too!”  
  
“Ah, but it’s only a game... We can just play again!” The final boy, Basil, had a smile on his face. “Besides, Nieta is here now, maybe we can do something else now. The possibilities are endless, after all!”  
  
“You’re just saying that because you were losing, Basil.” Kel pouted.  
  
“Maybe a little... haha.” Basil sheepishly scratched his head. “But remember? Sunny and Hero said they were having a picnic today at the Playground. I bet they would like it if we went to visit, what do you think, Nieta?”  
  
Nieta nodded her assent.  
  
“Then let’s- WAIT!!!! I don’t have Mr. Plantegg!” Aubrey checked all around herself and huffed. “Kel! Did you take him again!?”  
  
“Noooooo~!” Kel said with a cheeky smirk.  
  
“Kel! You jerk! Give him back!”  
  
“N-now now...” Basil said sheepishly. He was practically being talked over. “If Kel really took it then it has to be somewhere hidden here. Let’s-” The argument cut him off. 

Nieta took the hint and looked around. Ah yes, a conspicuous watermelon with the letters “K-E-L” written on it. She smashed it open. All watermelons had something in them, this was common knowledge. Sure enough, Mr. Plantegg was in there, dry and intact. She walked over and handed Aubrey the stuffed toy.  
  
“Nieta you found him! Was Kel really hiding him somewhere?” Aubrey twirled and hugged her plush.  
  
“...It was in a watermelon that had Kel’s name written on it.” Nieta finally said.  
  
“Well that solves it! Nieta never lies, everyone knows that!” Aubrey exclaimed.  
  
“Curses! Foiled by my own ego!” Kel fell over in dramatic fashion before Basil hurried to pick him up.  
  
“Come on Kel, you’ll do better next time.” The boy with the flower crown said.  
  
“WHAT!? Basil, how could you!? Come on Nieta, let’s leave the _boys_ to it!” Aubrey turned up her nose and followed after Nieta, pushing her a little.  
  
“...Oops. Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, Aubrey.” Basil joined and was allowed alongside the others.  
  
“Hey wait for me!” Kel zipped along, and the four friends left on the stairs, and out of the stump.  
  
\---Ssssssss? (Going somewhere? Here’s your allowance.) Nieta got 50 clams.---  
  
The Playground was on the more northern end of the Pinwheel Forest. Here and there you could see the giant toys turn in the wind. A host of children of all shapes played. On swings and slides, or with a puzzle. The four friends, instead of playing with any of the games and equipment, walked to a picnic blanket where a boy with the same bluish hair as the other three friends raised a hand in greeting. He was rather cliff-faced and wore something that seemed to be a school uniform. The other was a tall boy who wore an apron, and had messy dark red hair.   
  
“Hey guys! You’re just in time, Sunny and I made burgers!” Hero gave a winning smile.  
  
“Hero did most of it.” Sunny’s voice was quiet, but came with a small upturn of the mouth.  
  
“What? I couldn’t have possibly done it without you.” He looked over to an overflowing basket. “Maybe we overdid it a little, though.”  
  
“Not with how Aubrey eats!” Kel had a mischievous look as he snatched a burger.  
  
“There’s nothing wrong with what I eat! R-right, Sunny?”  
  
Sunny nodded his head and held up a burger. A vote of confidence from the stoic one.  
  
“So lively, haha...” Basil laughed before grabbing his own and sitting down near Sunny. The six friends all passed a wonderful afternoon, eating their burgers and playing.  
  
“Hey Hero! Hero!!” Van, a large dinosaur man, waddled up to the group. “Boss showed up on the playground and Berly went to go fight him off!”  
  
Hero gave a concerned look. “That sounds serious. Didn’t Berly put up the rules forbidding him?”  
  
“If it’s Boss then we’re all in danger, we all need to go stop him!” Kel popped up and saddled a rubber ball under his arm.  
  
“Let’s protect the Playground, the last time Boss was here he turned hide and seek into a body slamming game...” Aubrey held her bat up.  
  
“Guys, maybe we can solve this without fighting...” Basil said, picking up his camera.  
  
“I agree with Basil, that’s why I’ll go on ahead. Wait here. Keep them safe, okay Nieta?” Hero nodded in her direction with a reassuring look. The remaining friends all traded looks of their own with one another.  
  
“Nieta, are we really going to stand here? What do you want to do?” Kel asked.  
  
“I... Don’t want Hero to be alone.” The words were halting at first. She felt pushed to do it, as if by some outside force for reasons she didn’t quite understand. She picked up her jump rope and looked to Sunny.  
  
“Be safe.”  
  
Nieta, Aubrey, Basil, and Kel all ran for the north side of the park, just in time to hear a deep laughter shake the air. A large violet kid, larger than Van even, was standing with Hero in one arm. He had a teal rhino horn and blue overalls.  
  
“HWEHWEHWEHWEHWE!! You stupidheads! I have Hero now and no one can stop me from playing hide and seek! The real hide and seek!”  
  
Berly, the one with a blue hoodie and a mohawk of a fish fin right down her head, hopped madly in place. Her sidelong hair waved into her eye and her red glasses nearly fell off her nose.  
  
“Hey you good-for-nothing scoundrel! Give us Hero back!”  
  
“Never! As long as I have him, this Playground is mine! Now I’ll finally be the one to make the rules!”  
  
Hero sheepishly waved from the giant's arm. “Hi guys, I guess I got captured.”  
  
Berly turned and looked at the approaching party. “Hey you guys, perfect timing! You’re always with Hero, you must be almost as good as him, right? Go on, use your power of friendship or something and fight!”  
  
“Gimme back my brother, Boss!” Kel stepped up.  
  
“Yeah, quit hurting people!” Aubrey also stepped to a ready position.  
  
“Are we really going to do this?” Basil asked.  
  
Nieta readied her jump rope. “Let Hero go.”  
  
Kel launched his ball with two hands. He hit Boss square in the eye and crouched to retrieve his weapon from the low angle it bounced at. Aubrey flew in next, looking as though she were about to swing Mr. Plantegg. But instead a baseball bat collided with the bully’s knee, causing him to hop around. The perfect opportunity for Nieta to lash out with the jump rope like it was a whip. The handle struck right in the back of his other ankle, and he fell onto his rear. Finally, with more than a little trepidation perhaps, Basil hit the flash on his camera. The light alone landed as effectively as a fist or a bat. Boss recovered from the fourfold strike and kipped up with a hop.  
  
"That kinda hurt! Now I'm ANGRY!" A light reddish glow overtook him at the edges as he growled. Next he made a swipe of his hand and hit Nieta. She reeled back and waved her arms wildly to stop from toppling over.  
  
"Nieta! Be careful, emotions are really strong!" It was Hero, calling from the bully's arm. "If you're not a strong emotion of your own, you'll take a lot of damage! Remember, HAPPY beats ANGRY beats SAD beats HAPPY!"  
  
Nieta froze up for a moment. This wasn't like before. What's this new rule? Battles were simple affairs, she didn't have to feel anything. She watched as Kel made a face at Aubrey after she went through all the effort to cheer on his next attack. Basil looked at a wilted flower and tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. Nieta looked around in a fluster, these were clearly the rules, now, she had to play along. She had to. She looked at Kel and attempted to smile as wide as he did. She would just COPY an emotion, easy! A faint yellow glow overtook her, the same as the boy who was now throwing a ball once again at the great angry rhino. She guessed she was doing it correctly. Even if the act made her even more uneasy.  
  
She had to, though.  
  
Aubry stomped her foot down onto the enemy's, then called out to Nieta, who gave her a friendly wave. Sparkles filled the first girl's eyes and she made another attack, this time with her bat. Nieta snapped her wrist and hit in a uniquely powerful way. She felt the strum of Boss's heart through her rope, it felt devastating. She was noting her own strength when she noticed Basil come up and sprinkle her with a watering can. It didn't feel wet, only the feeling of being refreshed and whole again poured out of the spout. Even through his tears, Basil smiled at the thought of helping something or someone grow healthy.  
  
"Hey, that really, really hurt! Fine then, it's BODY SLAM TIME!!" The friends' assault wasn't enough, Boss ran rampant through them all.  
  
Kel became TOAST...  
  
Aubrey became TOAST...  
  
Basil became TOAST...  
  
...  
  
...Nieta did not succumb.  
  
All around the edges of her vision, darkness encroached. Cracks and wisps flew in front of her, and she felt a little crack in her heart. She had to strain a little, but lashed out her whip. It flew too far to the right. Boss cracked his knuckles and took another step forward. This adventure would be over if she couldn't do this one thing. The jump rope whistled through the air one more time...  
  
And struck! Boss was defeated, he released Hero and fell down. The plain TOAST became Kel, the TOAST with the bow became Aubrey, and the TOAST with the flower crown became Basil.  
  
"Wow, we did it! We're the best!" Kel said triumphantly.  
  
"You mean we're lucky Nieta hung on, or we'd all be TOAST right now." Aubrey rubbed her head clean of its grainy feeling.  
  
"Thanks, Nieta. We can always rely on you!" Basil's tears were long gone, replaced by his brighter disposition.  
  
Hero drew up now. "That's right. Thank you for being here, Nieta. Things always turn out well when you're around." He turned back to Boss. "Now about you..."  
  
Boss seized up before Basil went to Hero's side. "Boss must have been really lonely, huh?" He said, half to Hero and half to Boss.  
  
"Lonely? He stole Hero!" Kel shouted.

"Yeah! He could have been seriously hurt." Aubrey nodded.  
  
"C'mon guys, didn't you notice how he kept me out of reach of your attacks?" Hero asked.  
  
Basil was the one to reply. "Yes! You're actually a very good person, aren't you, Boss?"  
  
"Here, I got just the thing. Take down that poster for me, Basil?" Hero directed Basil and walked away, coming back shortly with the last hamburger, presenting it with a winning smile.  
  
Boss looked from the burger, to Hero, to the rest several times before shaking himself. "Agh! I give up!!" He pulled up a drawing of a tree over himself in a flash. The dropped it to take a burger before hiding again.  
  
"I guess he's shy..." Hero said sheepishly.  
  
"Aw man... Why'd you give him the last burger? I had my name on it!" Kel was pouting.  
  
"I still have all of my cooking stuff ready at home. I can just go and be right back with another burger for you, Kel!"  
  
"Let's all go! It feels like we haven't been to Hero's in forever!" Aubrey seemed excited to go, a contagious mood that quickly spread to Basil and Kel.  
  
"Alright, alright, we can all go. Will you come too, Nieta?"  
  
Nieta answered Hero with a nod, and the set off for Hero's house. Through the Pinwheel Forest a short way away.  
  
\---...Hi Sis. If you wanna save you can use my GameLad in the basket.---

Hero's house was tall. Not because of how many stories it had, but because it was in a tree. Hero often downplayed the fact that he had built it almost entirely by himself. A modest, blocky home made of planks, with a rope ladder that hung down as an entryway. It was located in a small clearing, by water, but the surrounding forest could be dark. Occasionally, Nieta would see a shadow move or a branch fall just at the corner of her vision. It was a calming place in the shade for the others, but now, that wound in her heart kept nagging her. Something felt ever so slightly wrong.  
  
She found out what when she followed Hero up the ladder.  
  
"I think I still have some patties and buns up here, all I need is a frying pan and we'll be set to-" Hero stopped in his tracks. "What's this?"  
  
A knife lay on the ground. It was clean and shining, like a piece of mirror. Nieta had seen it. In that moment, she wished, even slighty, to scream, or jump for it, or do anything. For all her desire, though, she couldn't put a dire enough feeling into her legs. Feelings were poisonous, after all. So instead she watched as Hero picked it up and looked into the gleaming flat of the blade.  
  
"That's odd... This knife... It looks so familiar." Hero said it like he was completely transfixed. A single drop of red dripped from the tip of the knife. Nieta saw his eyes go wide in the reflection, and his irises went red. "This..." Hero turned to Nieta. "Your back..." Another step forward, his voice became strange. "Sunny... he-!"  
  
Everything stopped. In a tumult everything stopped. Everything had to stop, it had to. Those next words were too much, too loud, too wrong! Everything wiped away in suffocating dark. There's nowhere to go, nowhere else to be. She had to get out of here somehow, this wasn't safe.  
  
All around her was white again. White Space loomed forever outwards. The same as it always was. The same except that this time, there was no door. She walked over to her laptop to check her diary. The screen was glitched out. She slapped it several times before it turned off entirely, and in the black screen, she could see something. A crack in the White Space. long and snakey and, well, more like a tree branch than a crack, when she looked at it. It was too soon for this, wasn't it? Something else has to happen, right? Right?  
  
" _Mew_?" Nieta knew that sound. It felt like she knew the words Mewo was trying to say to her.  
  
" _Waiting for something to happen_?"  
  
She knew what she had to do. She kept doing it because she knew she had to. She began working her jump rope. curling and knotting it. Tying one end over the branch, and letting the end she tied into a loop hang free. She placed the makeshift noose around her neck, and took a breath. Her face was as expressionless as ever while she was in here.  
  
Time to do what she knows she should.

She took one step off the blanket, and there was no floor. She felt her neck snap in the right paces. The rope cut off her few last breaths. She twitched uselessly for her last few seconds, and everything went dark.  
  
\---Would you like to save your game? Y/N---

A girl laid in her dark room, fitfully turning. Her hair was very long and splayed all over the bed. What was her name again?  
  
Mari. That's right.  
  
Mari woke up, feeling a pain in her stomach. The room was dark, and sparse. Cardboard boxes were pushed up against the wall. The only furniture was a dresser, a nightstand, an old bookshelf, and a desk. On the desk was an old computer and a telephone with a red blinking light on it. Mari sighed a little and walked over to it, pressing the play button.  
  
"Hi Mari, it's Mommy. I'm still in the city setting things up for our new home. I'm sure you already finished packing, but just in case, I left you a list of things to do before the movers get there. They'll be there in a few days. Also sorry! Mommy messed up! I forgot to tell the electric company that we need a few extra days before we're ready to move, so the lights might cut out sometime tonight. Anyway... I know moving to a new place can be a little nerve-wracking, especially having to put back college, but I think a change of scenery will be positive for both of us! I know you've been so busy lately, but it might be a good idea to say goodbye to your old friends before we leave. Kel has been trying really hard to get ahold of you ever since we put up the house for sale, I guess he wants to make sure you see him and Hero before you go. Okay that's it. Mommy loves you!" Bzzt...

Mari felt hunger clawing at her insides. She felt unsure of the last time she ate. The moonlight was just enough to make out a sticky note on the wall denoting that there was steak in the fridge downstairs. Mari decided that she was not going to to do that in the dark. It was too much, even looking over the banister at night felt like she was going to tip into the endless abyss. There was a much easier way to handle her hunger. Mari went to the bathroom and took a glass of water, looking at herself in the mirror. Her hair was very, very long. Down to the back of her knees and somewhat messy. Not as well kept as she once would have liked, and her bangs were too long as well. She wore a black long-sleeved shirt, and some shorts. She shook off her own appearance and went back to bed.

She lied down, attempting to sleep. To go back. But water wasn't enough to get there this time. She had to go downstairs. She had guessed it was her third day without food, rather than the second. She attempted to gather herself, the stairwell lie ahead.  
  
The hall was illuminated in red. The stairs yawned under her. They seemed much longer than normal. All down into a black blot at the bottom. Mari tremored, then finally took a step. Then another. Then two more until she was walking down the stairs. Her hand had a vice grip on the banister. She could see dark hands begin to slither up the walls, the blot on the floor ahead widen and extend sickening tendrils outward. She began to feel pain. Not just from her stomach, but her back, and arms. He breathing quickened the darker it got, the more the tendrils at the bottom of the stairs curled and crept up them. They were three steps in front of her now. The tentacles halted there a moment, waiting, then finally struck all at once.  
  
They wrapped around and pulled the blot up to face Mari. Jagged, rotten teeth filled its misshapen mouth, and wild, bulging eyes fixated on Mari. She had to find a weapon now, she had to defend herself. Anything would do. The monster pulled her and she fell a step before catching herself. Her foot nudged something as she did.  
  
A box cutter. It was better than nothing. No, it was perfect. She grabbed it and lashed out to no effect.  
  
"Leave me alone! Go away!" Mari shouted in a craze. She had to fend off this feeling, she was being dragged down again. She swiped out uselessly with the box cutter, each time it flew through the shadow.  
  
"Mari..." A voice called out. She didn't know who's it was or where it came from.  
  
Another swipe, another stair closer to that thing. That... Something.  
  
"Remember what you told me? Take a deep breath..." The voice said again.  
  
She was half listening, swinging wildly now as she was brought closer. Her back felt like it was being stabbed.  
  
"Don't be afraid. It's not as scary as you think."  
  
Those words. She knew them. She was having a panic attack. She needed to collect herself, close her eyes, and calm down. Deep breath. Take stock of what is happening around her.  
  
Mari was standing on the landing of the stairs. There was no eerie red glow, no grasping hands and tendrils. Only her. In her home. Alone. She looked to her hand, no box cutter was there.   
  
"Again..." Mari shook her head and continued to the kitchen, her skin prickling. It's okay, she would just get some food and be done with this whole night. She halted momentarily before entering the next room, and calmed herself again. Mari walked to the fridge and found a cold steak on a plate inside. She took it and put it into the microwave. She watched as the meat spun around, being very careful not to look anywhere else. Turning on the lights, especially in here, was a little...  
  
Beeeeep!  
  
At least they wouldn't work soon, and she wouldn't have to worry. Mari took her plate and then wavered over the knife on the counter. She took it and roughly carved the steak, eyes nearly closed. Mari then went to the dining room to eat, leaving the knife behind.  
  
"There's no reason to be afraid. There's no reason to be afraid." She kept repeating. "It wasn't there. It wasn't there."  
  
Halfway through her mantras and entirely through her meal she began to feel sick to her stomach. She raced upstairs, feeling the turning in her stomach get worse with every step. Mari held back her hair as best she could, and let it all come out. The water in the toilet was pinkish, and there were chunks of meat in it.  
  
At least she didn't feel like eating anymore. She washed out her mouth and brushed her teeth without staring in the mirror, removing the acidic taste of bile. Now it was time to leave this nightmare behind.  
  
Or would be, if there wasn't a knock at the door.  
  
"Is that Kel? Now?" Mari mused and followed the knocking sounds. They didn't seem to let up at all. It had to be Kel, no one else was crazy enough to be awake at this hour. Or it could be someone who knew she was home all alone. Mari looked to a pile of boxes aside the door, and picked up the box cutter there. The real one, exactly where her mom had left it.  
  
"Who's there?"  
  
"It's Sunny... I'm back from Basil's."  
  
That just wasn't possible. Was it? But it sounded exactly, perfectly like him. No one else could have a voice that was so quiet and yet carried through the door.  
  
It couldn't hurt to take a peek, right? If this was another dream then it should be fine, right? Sure, she was just dreaming and wanted to see her little brother. She slid the door open a crack. There was a serene nightscape.  
  
Then it slid into view in the space. It wasn't Sunny. It was some grotesque puppet of Sunny that had its chest carved out into a bleeding hole. Its face was dead, and rigid. Red tears dropped from hollow eyes. It hung in the air as if by a string, and rasped in a dry rattle. Mari shut the door in an instant, flicking all the locks shut as the pounding resumed. She ran up the stairs again, but not before looking sidelong into the kitchen. A mistake, seeing something-

No. Not just something, Something. Something slithered on the floor of the kitchen in the moonlight. She didn't need to look directly at it to know what it looked like, it haunted her everywhere. The sickly red puddle that slithered along the ground, arms and legs jutting out of it at odd angles. And the center of its mass was dark and endless, holding a single crimson eye. It slithered after her in the bathrooms of her old school and dark corners of the street on the way home. She ran from it then, and now it had even gotten inside her house. Mari ran from it all. She was tired of being so afraid. Feeling nothing would be better than this. Feeling nothing was preferable. She needed it to stop. So she wrapped herself in her covers, and went to sleep once again.


	2. Three Days Left

\---Welcome to White Space. You have been living here for as long as you can remember.---

Nieta awoke in the white room. It was the same as ever now that the other girl was gone. But now that annoying dark crack was still there. She looked at her jump rope. It seemed like it had a kink in it now, and wouldn't fully straighten out. Nieta took note and went for her sketchbook, thumbing through it. Pictures filled with red blotted through the pages, and words in a hasty, repeating scrawl made poems and accusations. On the last page was that thing that had been following her. Crimson splotch and gangly limbs, with a single eye in the center. It followed her even here, not that Nieta much cared. She didn't need to. Or not usually. Having to COPY emotions wasn't like the real thing but still, it was a break with the system. One more thing to keep track of, and a burden besides.  
  
Nieta shook her head and made for the door to the Neighbor's Room. The pastel look filled her senses again. Violet sky, pink walls, and those three sitting in the center.  
  
"Nieta!" Aubrey called out, and all three approached. "You're here!"  
  
"We were worried about you... When everything went dark you and Hero vanished..." Basil added.  
  
"Well, Nieta is here! Now we just need to find my brother." Kel said, determination burning behind his eyes. "Come on, let's go!"  
  
"Wait, Kel! We don't even know where Hero could be. Headspace is huge and we could be searching forever!" Aubrey pouted a little after her declaration. "But I do really want to find him. It feels weird without him here."  
  
"Nieta, do you have any idea where Hero might be? You both went missing, did you see him while you were out?" Basil tremored lightly.  
  
They were all looking to her. Counting on her to lead the way again. Anywhere would do, wouldn't it? To start looking.  
  
"I might. I thought I saw footsteps going to the ladder, up to Otherworld." Nieta commented. It wasn't a lie, she knew they were there. Nieta doesn't lie, after all.  
  
"Oh no..." Aubrey deflated when she heard the news. "Nieta, you're scared of heights aren't you? I don't think we'll be able to go."  
  
Nieta looked on. She felt compelled to step up for her friend. She was strong enough to, after all. She always knew what to do. It's simply what had to be done.   
  
"Let's go to Otherworld, I'll be okay on the ladder if it's to find Hero." Nieta watched the three faces around her light up. She was doing her job. They all filed in behind her, and were on the way.  
  
\---Aubrey learned HEADBUTT.---  
  
"Alright, let's go!" Kel grabbed the ladder.  
  
"Hold on, Nieta might still be scared." Aubrey called out and turned to her friend. "You won't fall, okay? You can do anything, this ladder is no big deal!"  
  
"I can."  
  
"Don't worry, we can catch each other if we do, haha..." Basil nervously rubbed his head.  
  
"Basil! Don't scare her!" Aubrey huffed in her usual way. "You won't fall."  
  
"Nieta is too strong to fall anyway, did you see her beat up Boss? This ladder is nothing!" Kel proudly proclaimed  
  
Nieta approached the ladder now, and felt the encroaching hands from her dream reach for her. Ever closer until finally, they broke. She wasn't scared of heights anymore. She didn't need to be, more like. An annoying intrusion into herself...  
  
But it was fine.  
  
The ladder stretched far into the sky. Into space, with white stars flying on the purple background. If Nieta, Aubrey, Basil, or Kel had looked down, they could see almost all of Headspace stretch out below. The Pinwheel Forest in the center and the Misty Ocean that bordered the world on all sides. To the northwest of the Playground was a dark forest where the leaves were all clouds, and lightning flashed within, Rolling Woods. To the north was an inlet of Misty Ocean, at the far end of which was a waterfall to the Undersea Campus. Finally, on its own island, accessible only by train, was Watermelon Wastes. For now, though, Otherworld hung overhead. It was a rest stop of sorts for all manner of space travel, and also just a long climb away from the Playground.  
  
Kel scrambled up the ladder first. How he got ahead was anyone's guess. He had a certain way with the improbable, it always seemed. He stabbed a flag into the ground and let it fly.  
  
"FIRST! That's one small step for Kel... One giant step for Kelkind!!"  
  
Nieta was next, followed by Aubrey, who seemed to have heard the line because she shouted out, "That's not how it goes!" as soon as her head broke the surface.  
  
"You don't get to decide how it goes... You weren't here first!"  
  
A loud panting noise came from the entryway. "G-guys... I think... _huff_... I need..."

Nieta reached down and pulled Basil up the remainder of the way.  
  
"Thanks Nieta... Sorry about... _wheeze_... That..."  
  
"IS THAT MY BUTT CERTIFICATE?? TAKE THAT THING DOWN RIGHT NOW!" Aubrey cried out in a rush. It seems she disagreed with Kelkind's manner of marking turf. "What if someone sees it..?"  
  
"No way! Look at this thing fluttering in the wind. _So majestic... So beautiful..._ " Kel practically had a tear in his eye as a result of the beauty.  
  
"NIETA! DO SOMETHING!"  
  
Nieta was patting Basil on the back as he wheezed.  
  
"We might need a minute first." She said.  
  
"Oh. Basil are you alright?" The matter of the "flag" seemed forgotten as they nursed their friend back to health. More than enough time to take measure of their surroundings. Flowers as tall as Nieta made a vast field. Red, blue, yellow, white, and orange blossoms reached for space and swayed in the breeze. Small paths could be found, with smaller flowers giving a soft light along them.  
  
"What kind of flowers are these, Basil? They're so big!" Aubrey's eyes grew wide.  
  
"I think... They're tulips. They're really simple, quiet flowers, but I've never seen them grow this big before." Basil looked on with a starry gaze.  
  
"Wow! Maybe we can get some seeds and grow huge flowers back home!" Kel poked at the stem of one.  
  
"I don't know if they're like normal tulips, they might only grow here." Basil couldn't help but keep staring intently at the flowers, however.  
  
"Let's look for Hero first, and then look at tulips." Nieta was half-suggesting it, but the others took the cue and instantly lined themselves behind her. It was on to Otherworld Spaceport.  
  
It was a modest affair for the most part, like a rest stop along the highway. Rather than trucks and cars come to park, there were a number of strangely shaped craft. Some were fashioned after televisions, or radio towers. Others were like tiny cruise ships and citrus fruits. Parked far from those ships, however, was one shaped like a crescent moon, in teal and purple. Closer by was a small building, in front of which was a checkered picnic blanket. Sitting there was none other than Sunny.  
  
"...Hi everyone. This is the Otherworld Spaceport."  
  
"Ah... I should have guessed that Sunny would be here first. He knows Headspace even better than you sometimes, Nieta, I bet he took a secret shortcut!" Basil went to go sit at Sunny's side on the picnic blanket.  
  
Sunny nodded. "That ship has been here the longest. You can try asking them where Hero went." He pointed to the crescent-shaped ship, then motioned to some space food he and Hero had made earlier. "You can have some."  
  
This was the manner this world went, every time. It kept going around and around for her without end. Adventures with friends. Nieta had seen this happen before in several minimally different ways. Yet the main story was always the same. The party would climb up to Otherworld and find Captain Spaceboy, leader of the most famous group of space pirates ever. Each time they would be directed to the Paper Route, a maze where the walls were stacks upon stacks upon stacks of papers, in order to find a unique kind of stationary that can only be found at the deepest point. All so that Captain Spaceboy would have the perfect paper to write his confession to his one true love, Sweetheart. Each time, however, there would be a tear or a crease, and the Captain would fly into an unforetold rage. Everything had to be absolutely perfect before he confessed, after all. Even though everyone in every world knew that they liked one another, it all had to be just right.  
  
The only difference this time was the Captain Spaceboy did not fly into a rage, he became unbearably sad instead, enveloped in the unusual glow that emotions took this time around. He slowly sank from SAD to DEPRESSED to MISERABLE at the end of it all. Nieta had tried to keep up by copying Kel's HAPPY, but was almost instantly obliterated in return. Aubrey's ANGER would have to do, yet another emotion she had to COPY. The world was offering her less and less room each time.. Even with the changes the party would be victorious eventually, and when the Captain finally fell to being headbutt and struck with a jump rope handle, he would calm down, and tell them that Hero was nowhere to be found. Of course he wasn't anywhere up here. He was never anywhere when he disappeared. Yet she still couldn't help but walk the path back to him all the same.  
  
Nieta had completed her fruitless journey, blankly walking back until she noticed that her friends weren't behind her in the tulips. She searched and turned, but the only thing there was a shadow.  
  
A tall, familiar shadow she had to chase. She ran through the tulips without much caution. Snow was falling from the sky over the field.  
  
_Sunny's such a good listener, I feel like I can tell him anything_

_If I knew he liked boxes so much, I would have just gotten him on of those!_

_Your favorite show is on! Hurry up!_  
  
Whispers from unknown places slithered out of the field to Nieta. She shrugged them off, continuing through the maze after the strange shadow, until she came upon a red barn.  
  
This place again.  
  
She opened the door with a loud creaking sound. The shadow stood in front of a picture frame, which held a crayon drawing of a beach. The picture frame was far and away too large, easily dwarfing her. Nieta walked forward, she knew that this is where the shadow had went. Into the drawing of a happy sun and surf.  
  
Into a black corridor, stretching on and on, to a single square of wall at the back. A black and white photo of a happy family hung on the wall, and in front of it was a book of sheet music. Seeing the notes made even Nieta's stomach turn, as though they were wrong. The very faint sound of a violin scratching a few notes could be heard behind the wall. There was nothing useful for Nieta here, she turned.  
  
She heard a single scoff in response to the scratched music. She looked for the source and there was Something, rising through the floorboards, leg and arm facsimiles all akimbo. It eyed her for one moment, then rushed. She felt the limbs grasp her, grab at her. For one moment she saw Hero's look of disappointment, or thought she did, in the confusing dark.  
  
Then it was all white again. White space stretched as always, as ever. This adventure was over, there was no recovering. Even the door was missing.  
  
It was her time to dream. Nieta once again knotted her rope, once again threw it over the branch or crack, and once again stepped off of the blanket.  
  
She once again felt herself die.  
  
\---Three days left---  
  
_I wonder... Do you sometimes see Something on the floor, or around the corner? The same Something from that night? I do._  
  
 _I do..._  
  
The last echoes of a familiar voice rang in Mari's head as she woke. She rubbed at her throat a bit before finally getting up to do the bare minimum of hair brushing. Daylight had entered the house, and all of the cardboard boxes and the like could be clearly seen. As well as the phone, which had another message. Mari dutifully pressed the play button.  
  
"Hey Mari, it's Mommy. How are you doing? Have you eaten? I was hoping that I could make it back to see you today, but it's the last day of a big furniture sale and I just can't resist a good bargain! Remember, if you don't like what's in the fridge you could always go next door, I'm sure Hero's family would love to see you again. I also left enough for you to buy a thing or two from Othermart. Okay, that's it for now! Mommy loves you!" Bzzzt.  
  
Mari changed out of her pajamas. It was a little too warm for a long sleeve shirt, but she felt like wearing one anyway.  
  
A knock on the door greeted her when her head popped back up into the light.  
  
"What is it now..? It's broad daylight." Mari hesitated only a moment in front of the stairs, gripping the banister tightly before stepping down them before the person, or thing, on the other side put a hole in her door.  
  
"Hellooooo... Hellooooooooo? Mari, are you there? It's your old friend Kel!"  
  
Mari drew near the door. Kel's voice continued.  
  
"So, I... uh... I noticed the "FOR SALE" sign in front of your house... and I... err... Heard from Mom that you were moving away soon. I was wondering... If you maybe wanted to hang out one more time and maybe... You know..?"  
  
It had to be fake. It had to be fake, after all these years, Kel was here? Mom had said he called on her, but why? He must have known that things went... Weird.  
  
But it might be the last time she ever sees them. She can at least see if everything is still okay. For his sake. What was the real harm of putting on her old face? For just a day or two?  
  
Mari opened the door. The first thing that caught her notice is that Kel had gotten tall. Taller than her. Maybe taller than Hero. Kel wore an orange jersey and a smile. His smile... At least something about him hadn't changed.  
  
"Woah, you actually came out!" He suddenly looked flustered. "Err... I mean...."  
  
"It's okay, Kel. I know you're just happy to see me after so long, right?" She did her best to smile. it wasn't all there, but mostly.  
  
"You're right! I..! Okay, I'm going to be totally honest with you, I really didn't expect you to come out, I thought you may have had work or more... college stuff to do, so I don't really have a game plan."  
  
"Then I'll follow you somewhere. I've been doing college work for so long now, it feels like I'm in a new town already!" Her heart hurt just a little.  
  
"Oh, then let's go to Hobbeez! Down in Faraway Plaza! I used to go there with- Ahem! I mean I need to get a gift." Kel's tact had infinitely improved. Which still wasn't much.  
  
"I don't think I've been in there since they stopped selling Magical Heart stuff... Maybe it would be nice to see what's popular now. Will you lead the way?"  
  
"Yes! Let's go!!!"  
  
Faraway was the kind of suburb that was all at once sprawling and small. Nicer two story houses were a few streets from the cheaper single floor, and the lanes were lined with old trees. Construction constantly rerouted local traffic here and there, and it was often said that you never had the same route home two weeks in a row. Other than that it had everything for a quiet life. A church, a green park filled with people on their days off, and now before the pair was the strip mall that Hobbeez was part of. As well as Gino's, Othermart, and Fix-it.  
  
Kel burst onto the old scene with Mari in tow. The hobby shop smelled like old books. CDs were on display in the center, comics to the left of the entrance, a card table on the right, and shelves of books and figurines in the back.  
  
"To tell you the truth... I was going to get something for Hero. He's coming home from college sometime tomorrow." Kel looked ashamed that he had left that detail out.  
  
Hero. That was a name she was never fully ready for.  
  
"I was just going to grab something really quick. But you know... err... If you wanted to see him... I don't think... He'd... err... I don't think he'd dislike it." Kel dug his toe in the ground.  
  
"I um... I might like to see him again. Maybe. If I'm not busy." She couldn't fight the tug in her heart. Something in the air put her on edge. The more she listened to it the more she thought how it might be the last time for her to properly see him. "But you can't just get anything for your brother, Kel! You have to get him something he'd really like!"  
  
"Right... Now what would that be?" The pair compared shelf items, from violent video games the young man would probably cry over to comics that would go unread and take up dorm space, the two couldn't find anything of note, until they searched the back shelf. This held the figurines Kel always bought with his lunch money and also several books. One in particular stuck out to Mari.  
  
"Papa Chip's Chip-Off-the-Old-Block Cookbook? Oh wow, Hero used to have a ton of cookbooks. I wonder if he still likes making food."  
  
"I haven't seen him make food for awhile now... Maybe this could help him get back on track! Or at least help him eat at the dorm. What? Twenty dollars! Fine I guess I'll... Mari."  
  
"What is it, Kel?"  
  
"Do you have twenty dollars? I left my wallet at home."  
  
"... I do, but you can't tell Hero I bought this for him, okay?"  
  
"Why not? Oh! You want it to be a surprise! You're too nice, Mari."  
  
Mari took the book under arm and paid for it at the register. She still had ten dollars to get food. If she even wanted food.  
  
"Thank you, I promise I'll pay you back."  
  
Mari knew she would never see that twenty again.  
  
"So, what should we do now? Oh! We can go to the park. There's always something going on there." Kel's energy was inexhaustible.  
  
Mari idly wondered if the lake was still behind the park. Maybe it was worth having one last look. She could always wait inside for the move tomorrow, keep the doors locked and spend time far, far away. So they crossed the fountain, after Kel made a wish, and walked back to the park. It was there that they heard the shouts.  
  
"Please!!" It was a somewhat familiar voice. Mari watched Kel bolt ahead, and did her best to keep up with him. When she finally entered the park, she was greeted by the scene of a blonde boy with a flower in his hair and an olive sweater vest. A book of some sort was at the feet of a girl in a denim skirt and white jacket. It contrasted her black hair, that was held back by a teal ribbon.  
  
"I told you! You aren't going to-!!" She froze as she saw the new pair approaching. "...Mari?"  
  
Mari knew these two, vaguely. They were so different now. Her voice croaked a bit.  
  
"Basil? Aubrey?"  
  
Basil shot upright on hearing his name. He looked on, made a small sound, and bolted past both, out of the park with tears in his eyes.  
  
"Hey! Wait!!" Aubrey cried out. She picked up the book and tucked it under her arm, but her way was blocked by Kel.  
  
"What are you doing with Basil's photo album?"  
  
"He gave it to me, now get out of my way."  
  
"You mean you stole it from him!"  
  
"What!?"  
  
"We heard him begging you for it back on his knees! I knew you were low, Aubrey, but not that low!"  
  
"I'm low!? You...! You're such a moron, Kel!!" She ran past, giving one last sidelong glance to Mari. Mari thought that she had tears in her eyes too.  
  
"Aubrey! Shoot!! Come on Mari, we have to go after her and get Basil's photo album back!"

Mari grasped for Kel's hand and missed. He was clearly hot on her trail already. She couldn't just leave things as they were, not Sunny's friends. All of her wanted to turn right at the next street and go home, but she pressed onward, to the street Aubrey and Basil lived on. Here she could turn right, even if every step made her heart heavier. The church was ahead. That meant that the cemetery was ahead. She hadn't been there in four years. Not since, well, the funeral. It went against so many of the defenses she had built over the years. Every time she made to turn around, though, she saw something in her mind. The old sketches and drawings of her brother. That no matter what daydream he was in, his friends were alongside him. And she had let it decay. Maybe, just maybe, she could just start to put it all back together. Just one day, just a little meddling.  
  
Mari motioned for Kel to wait at the door, and entered the church mid-sermon. She quietly stepped in and looked through the pews.  
  
"Hey there she is."  
  
Kel hadn't waited by the door. Instead, he tiptoed his way to the pew behind Aubrey. Mari did her best to get alongside him before he could-  
  
"Pssst. Aubrey."  
  
"Kel!? What are you doing here? Mari, you too?" Aubrey grit her teeth in disbelief.  
  
"We want the photo album back."  
  
"Do you two really think I... She looked from Kel to Mari. "Do you really think I stole it?"  
  
"I heard Basil. What I want to know is why, didn't we all used to be friends? We want to know why."  
  
"Yeah. We were friends. We're not anymore, all the better if that's how you treat them."  
  
"Hey... it'd make Sunny really sad to hear that."  
  
Mari felt something change in the air.  
  
"Hey you two... Maybe we should all-" Her fake smile and calming words were cut off by a tone she had never heard from Aubrey  
  
"You... It's been four years before you even talk to me and that's what you want to say!?" Aubrey's shout split the sermon and she removed herself from the pew.  
  
"Yeah, it is! He would be sad to see what you're doing, don't you think?"  
  
"Sunny isn't alive to be sad, is he!? The accident was four years ago, Kel! You can't just... Just..! Just bring him up when you weren't there for us or here to visit him! Not you and not even Ma-!!" Aubrey suddenly covered her mouth, looking to Mari.  
  
Mari didn't know what kind of a face she was making. The accident... She felt her heart ice over. She immediately knew she should have spoken up more. She should have acted more cheerful. This wasn't fixing anything. It wouldn't fix anything, not when Aubrey ran out of the church. Whispers filled the hall about the unruly children, before Kel finally turned to Mari.  
  
"Aubrey!! Give it back!" Kel was finally stopped by Mari's hand. She shook her head solemnly. 

Mari looked from him to the rear of the church. The back doors guarded the cemetery itself, a place Mari hadn't gone since that day. The funeral after Sunny's accident. They had all decayed so much without him. He was quiet and sullen, but everyone talked to him about their problems. Well, everyone but one of them.  
  
In three days, the movers would be here. She could just wait it out...  
  
Mari swallowed the lump in her throat and put on her mask again.  
  
"Hey. A lot's happened. Maybe she was right, we should go see him." Mari put on her best smile. Kel nodded and followed her out back, to the cemetery. It was rare to find a gravestone without offerings of some kind. Each was well-tended, and well loved. The one they walked to was no exception. Rather than a bouquet or toy or snack though, there was only a single white egret orchid by the stone that read:  
  
_Here lies our beloved Sunny_  
 _The skies were calmer when he was here_  
  
Mari drew up close and put a hand on Kel's shoulder. Kel shook lightly before patting the stone.  
  
"You know, it's still weird without him here. Ever since the accident I realized just how much I talked to him. He'd always sit and listen to anything I had to say, and he was always right beside me whenever I got into a fight."  
  
"Is that why he got so many bruises?"  
  
"Hehe..." Kel chuckled nervously. "Sorry. Did Sunny ever tell you why?"  
  
"No... he was always really withdrawn about what he was up to, but he was also always happy to help someone."  
  
"That sounds like him. to a tee." Kel was silent a moment, shuffling his feet. "Sunny was always really good at doing the right thing. He'd help out around the neighborhood a lot. I wish I could do that. Just to be helpful..."  
  
"He was a really good brother that way."  
  
"Brothers... Hey, Mari? Do you want to see Hero? It's okay if you don't, I just think... You're both looking a bit better lately. It might do you both good."  
  
"Maybe before I go. I think tomorrow I want to talk to Basil. Maybe I can do something good for you guys before I leave."  
  
"Huh? Do something good for us? Who's us?"  
  
"Well... Maybe it's like... Kel, do remember how Hero and I were always asked to keep an eye on you four? I haven't been doing a good job watching over you all, have I? So I'll try my hardest now to at least get to the bottom of this photo album stuff." Mari felt a raindrop hit her cheek. "Uh... Kel? Was it supposed to rain today?"  
  
"Oh no! It's going to be a whole thunderstorm tonight! Ah! I'm really sorry, let me make sure you get home safely."  
  
The pair afforded one last look to their lost friend and sped off before the rain could hit. Mari was really out of shape, they had to stop several times for her to stretch her leg and catch her breath. On their street, Kel waved her on to her house, where she slammed the door just in time for the thunder to hit.  
  
Mari curled up by the door with the house-rattling shake. She hadn't considered that she might be against a thunderstorm. She didn't used to be afraid of them. Then again, she didn't used to be afraid of the dark, like she noticed it was now.  
  
That braver Mari used to exist, before she could see it every time the lightning flashed. Claws in the window. Red all over the floors. Each rumble sounded like the windows were ready to break open inwards. She took the box cutter out of her pocket. Something was here. It had to be. There was too much red over the floors.  
  
Lightning flashed. She saw a noose in the shadow of a tree. There was pounding on the window now, it rattled in the frame. Her room. Her room would be safe, not the kitchen, where red spilled over the sink and slid across the floor. Hands banged on the window with the next flash, and illuminated the bottom of the stairs. A broken violin lay at the very bottom. Mari carefully, carefully approached. Her back and arms began to hurt again. Another crash and there was a face in the window. A wide, crooked grin, and the snapping of electricity.  
  
"Mari..."  
  
She had to get back up the stairs. She began her climb. The stairs just wouldn't end. Exactly like last night. Each crash of lighting illuminated the stairwell. Teeth gnashed and red dripped all around her. Another three steps climbed. Then another flash, hands shaking the banisters, threatening to rip them apart. It continued, but if she didn't get to the top then...  
  
Something was already there. It flexed and twirled its arms and eyed Mari. She could feel herself falling. She made to grip the banister, but there was none. She looked down to the shattered instrument below, and back to Something. But there was no Something. Only a pale, see-through boy with short black hair. For a moment, everything was still. Then the hands grasped her all at once in the next flash of lightning. She fought and struggled, then was released, only to be nipped at by fangs the next time it all came into view. She made to swing with her weapon but slipped to her knee on something red.  
  
"Mari... There's a lot going on..."  
  
She cowered from the slither of serpents around her. She lashed out with her cutter.

"But if you focus on one thing at a time, you can tell it to me easier..."  
  
A desperate slice at a nearby mouth.  
  
"Just like you told me."  
  
Those were the words she needed. She had to focus on one thing at a time. Not all these instant illusions. The face in the window, her vision narrowed and she swung, swearing she could feel the blade catch.  
  
Everything was quiet again. The house was normal, if not weathering a storm. Mari shakily retracted her cutter and went to her bed, drawing her blanket all around her.  
  
The last thoughts on her mind were about Aubrey and Basil crying.


	3. Two Days Left

\---Welcome to White Space. You have been living here for as long as you can remember.---  
  
Nieta felt her identity return. The white blanket. The black laptop. The black cat, all of it. White Space as far as the eye could see. What nonsense was she dreaming of now? Acting like she was a good friend after all she had done. Taking the lead again? And failing, of course. Stupid.  
  
Nieta looked back to her jump rope, it had some knots in it now. She opened the door to the Neighbor's Room.  
  
"Nieta!" Aubrey chimed. "See? I told you all that Nieta always shows up when we need her!"

"See Basil? No need to worry." Kel chimed in. "Basil was about to cry without you."  
  
"I was not! Pollen just got into my eye..." Basil's eyes were indeed teary.  
  
"Come on, let's go find Hero, where else can we search? Do you know, Nieta?" Kel asked.  
  
"Rolling Woods. I think I saw him head that way."  
  
"The forest where the leaves are storm clouds? Another place you're afraid of, huh? Aubrey looked upset at another hardship.  
  
"It's alright. I can do it. I'll keep you safe." Nieta considered her own words. Were they hers? They sounded...  
  
Wrong.  
  
Another adventure like the others. Another one she had seen before, just like Otherworld. This one was the Rolling Woods, where it rained under the leaves, and lightning flashed. The main idea would be catching lightning in bottles to light their way forward in the dark patches. They would fight Lightning Bugs and Flash Bulb flowers on their way deeper in while completing pieces of a "circuit". A racing circuit, that is, and then drive a go-kart through a finish line that Aubrey couldn't break. There they would fight off a Dire Crocowire, the guardian to the path to Heartland. Unlike the cloud-keeping trees all around, it was more like a big city, with a single transmission tower in the center. It didn't hold any power lines itself, instead it was a decoration and viewing platform, like the Tokyo Tower. This was the land where everyone was a magical girl, yet only one didn't pretend like her magical and mundane identities were different. The party would go to ask her, Sweetheart, for help finding Hero. Only to find her in the middle of a fluster, organizing this and that one way or another. She was working on the perfect acceptance for Captain Spaceboy's letter. If it wasn't perfect, then he would never, ever accept after all. Besides, they were already close friends, if the timing of everything wasn't just right, then they could ruin a good thing. The party would of course help her put everything together to speed things along.  
  
There was another break in the system by then end of it all. Sweetheart would continue to get more disinterested in everything that the party brought her, until the stage was fully set, and she began talking at a faster and faster clip how love wasn't a magical girl's real power. Friendship was, after all. She'd lose all her power if she accepted, so she was far better off this way, and that she was happy to execute her duty as a magical girl. No, not happy, but HAPPY. Aubrey wouldn't allow her to throw her chance at love away, and led the charge in a fight, where Nieta was disgusted to learn how to COPY a sad, crying face. It would be her and Basil's SAD that would finally break the mood, and allow Sweetheart to own up to her own feelings without just paving over them. Just in time to meet with Captain Spaceboy. They would take his new ship, the Mercury Retrograde, somewhere where they could talk privately.  
  
The second break happened when Nieta found a hole under the stage Sweetheart had once prepared. If it were solely up to her, she would have left well enough alone. But it wasn't, now was it?  
  
Nieta was falling. Longer than she had ever fallen, into the dark. Into the deep places of the world. Into piles upon stacks of books. Now to the floor of a library, the shelves of which spread on seemingly endlessly. The world she knew was built on top of the shelves, which had roots like trees at the bottom. This was one of the places that should have stayed in the dark, not broken into the light.  
  
"Oh..? It is rare to see the Dreamer here..."  
  
Nieta whipped around. Another dark, misshapen entity. A thing that seemed like a cross between a vulture and a raggedy, moth-eaten coat. Nieta gave him a look and perused the shelves.  
  
"Are you lost? Or trying to become lost?"  
  
Nieta picked up a book. The words drew a picture of a girl watching her father and friends build a treehouse.  
  
"I would say you already are. You are the Dreamer, but this is hardly your Dream, is it?"  
  
Nieta replaced a book about a girl falling asleep next to her friend on the couch, recounting his warmth.  
  
"Caring for someone else's things is a noble goal, but at which point does grasping something tight become holding something in front of you?"  
  
Another book, this one was about a girl playing the same piece on the piano again and again. Her brother wanted something but it would simply have to wait.  
  
"How many layers has his world been plastered over hers? I'm curious if she'll ever see her own dreams again."  
  
This book was about a moment shared in secret, where a girl and a boy she liked got to hold one another.  
  
"Then again, if you're here, I suppose you are already well on your way. You hold something very precious in your hands, Dreamer, but is it truly the most precious thing he made? Would he throw it away for something, or someone, else? It could very well be. It could even be the place he once wished to go. What will you find, Dreamer?" The vulture man faded as Nieta reached for another book in between two roots, trying to pay him as little mind as possible.  
  
A girl was frustrated. A boy in the room had scratched on another note. It was clear he was listening to her playing the piano and not his own playing. He was slacking off again. She wasn't allowed to do that, he couldn't be either. He would have to start again. This time alone, she had schoolwork to do. She hadn't seen the tall boy in a week or two. Nieta shut the book and went to replace it, instead finding a face on the other side. Dark red hair and reddish eyes could be seen, and she knew he was wearing an apron besides. Nieta reached in and clasped a hand. When she pulled it out, she noticed the fingers were bleeding all over her. Those weren't Hero's red eyes anymore, it was the single crimson eye of Something. It pulled her through the bookshelf, into the dark. Images of the neck of a violin accompanied a sharp pain and a gurgled groan. On the neck of the violin was embossed gold wording.  
  
"Nieta, LTD."  
  
Nieta was in White Space. She ran her hands through hair in some pantomime of frustration. She didn't bother looking around, she just made her own noose. Again. It was time for her to die. Again. Her dreams have been getting stronger lately. Was she really not needed after all this time?  
  
Nieta gave her last few gasps.  
  
\---Two days left---  
  
Mari woke to a small, nervous knock on the door. She would have barely heard it if she hadn't just woken up. The newest sounds are the loudest in the morning. She groggily tumbled out of bed and went downstairs. The thunderstorm had long passed and it was a clear day. Mari went up to the door and opened it. It wasn't Kel this time. A boy in an olive polo with a flower in his hair smiled sheepishly on the other side. He had a white egret orchid in each hand.  
  
"G-good morning, Mari! Er... I mean, good afternoon!" He tried his best to smile.  
  
"Basil? Oh. Good afternoon, is it already that late?"  
  
"Haha... Yeah... I wanted to come earlier but Kel tried to drag me out for something. I didn't really... Want to. Not while he and Aubrey were fighting. But I did hear him through the door. He said you wanted to see me and that you were moving?"  
  
"Ah... Yeah. We are."  
  
"I guess I did see the sign out front... Haha..." Basil looked a little crestfallen.  
  
"But Kel is right, I do want to talk to you. Maybe we can go somewhere and talk? Maybe about why you gave your photo album to Aubrey? It's important to you all, but it does have your name on it!"  
  
"Um... I can tell you, but it might take awhile and I have to give this to... I won't ask you to come along."  
  
"It's okay, I'll come with you." Mari stepped outside, and Basil flustered back and forth a moment before acquiescing. The pair walked to the cemetery. There was no smell of wet grass, the midday sun had dried everything by the time the two arrived. Basil placed one of the orchids by the headstone, replacing a slightly withered one.  
  
"You have a lot of those around, don't you? Is it hard to grow?"  
  
"Oh!" Basil was snapped from reverie. "No, not at all, it's actually surprisingly easy, and they multiply well."  
  
"Ah, is that why you chose this flower to give to Sunny?"  
  
"...No, not entirely... It means 'My thoughts will follow you into your dreams'. I thought it was a good sentiment for him." Basil's smile sank a bit and he stared intently at the headstone. "Sunny always liked to daydream and show me pictures of the places he saw in his mind. He showed you too, right?"  
  
"I found some of his drawings a few years ago. Stuff like a ladder into space and a forest made of pinwheels."  
  
"Yeah! Or a spider forest, or an endless highway under the ocean. Haha! I often wished I could go on adventures in his daydreams with him. He said I was always there, but I wanted to really follow him. I really just wanted to follow him anywhere, I think. I feel kind of bad for saying it, since Aubrey is the one who introduced me to you guys, but sometimes I think Sunny was my best friend. He always listened to me whenever I needed it." Basil sniffled. "I really miss him. Ever since the accident, Kel and Aubrey just kept fighting more and more. If I hung out with one of them, they would talk about how much the other annoyed them, and I can't help but think that Sunny heard this all the time and was able to let them vent. I guess I'm not as good at it though, they stopped coming to see me before too long."  
  
"That one might be my fault. I was busy but I should have been there to help you guys with your friendship when I could. So you and Aubrey and Hero and Kel could all be together."  
  
"Us? What about you? You're our friend too. Aren't you?"  
  
The words stabbed into Mari's heart. She was just a caretaker, that was her role. When did she start saying that to herself? Yesterday?  
  
"Mari? You're my friend, right? All the memories we had with everyone? Like going to the beach or our first day in the treehouse, you were with us all. Ah, now all of a sudden I wish I had my photo album."  
  
"Photo album, right! Why did you give it to Aubrey?"  
  
"... I wanted it to be safe. Aubrey was always really gentle with it. I don't see her very much anymore but I feel like... She would care for it."  
  
"She didn't look like she wanted it."  
  
"Yeah... But I can't have it right now."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
Basil made an unsure face and picked up his other blooming orchid. "Come on, let's go to our old hangout spot by the lake. I need to go put a new flower there too."  
  
The streets were calm, not many people were out today, except for four children playing in the park. A blonde, an energetic kid playing keep-away from a girl with a bow, and a boy with short black hair who seemed happy to watch with a book in hand. Mari had missed it at first, but a tall boy was leaned over, snoring as though on someone's shoulder next to him.  
  
Mari blinked and it was all gone.  
  
"The entrance is just around here, remem-?" Basil was cut off by a growling shout.  
  
"BACK OFF!!"  
  
It was Aubrey's voice. Basil and Mari exchanged a look and ran as fast as they could into the small secret grove. The narrow path through overgrown bushes gave way to ancient road signs, the last guardians of a small lake with a pier. Standing on the pier was Aubrey, back to the lake. In front of her was Kel, the two looked like they were about to come to blows.  
  
"Not until you return Basil's album!" Kel seemed determined to have it back.  
  
"I told you, I'm not some thug!"  
  
"Well you're sure acting like one! Bullying and stealing and-!"  
  
Kel set his jaw and looked to a stack of books that were on the pier, he began to flip through them all.  
  
"Get your hands off of those!" Aubrey pushed Kel back. Mari saw the next actions play out as if in slow motion. She couldn't make it in time, she was still too far.  
  
Kel rose and pushed her back hard. Aubrey stumbled back two steps, then slipped from the pier just as Basil and Mari arrived.  
  
"Kel! How could you!?" Basil shouted at his friend.  
  
"I didn't think I'd push her that far... I was just... Looking for your album..." Kel's voice was halting and unsure.  
  
"I gave it to her, you jerk!"  
  
"What..? But... But I heard you..."  
  
Mari was scanning the water as she overheard Basil scolding Kel. She couldn't focus on that right now, she was looking for a sign, anything. Aubrey wasn't the strongest swimmer, but she could swim, at least. She would come up any second now.  
  
"Aubrey..." Mari pleaded.

Aubrey didn't surface.  
  
"Aubrey?" Kel had stopped squabbling and looked at the lake.  
  
Aubrey didn't surface.  
  
"Aubrey!!" Basil shouted.  
  
Aubrey was not going to surface.   
  
Mari dove into the lake without another word. It was all happening again. She knew the lake was shockingly deep, with dark reeds reached up from the bottom. She looked for any sign of Aubrey. Reeds there, a fish here, a bleeding hand... She shook her head clear. Now wasn't the time for-  
  
A face with a crooked smile illuminated the bottom, deep in the reeds. One was wrapped around the ankle of a girl, who was struggling to remove it. She kicked and tugged as the face looked on in silent laughter. Mari drew near and slid the box cutter out of her pocket. The reed was slick and resisted her efforts. She couldn't just hold her breath forever.  
  
Suddenly she was back on the stairwell. Lake plants and bubbles came from the depths. Ahead of her was a pale boy with dark hair, who took a long look at her before continuing down the stairs. Mari ran after him, white dress fluttering in the flow of water she struggled to work through. Trying to get closer, just like the day he fell in here. The day she almost lost him. One foot, another, it was harder and harder to even move. She had to keep trying. She had to-  
  
Keep trying.  
  
She made a leap and lightly brushed the boy's shoulder. He turned to her.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
She tried to hug him. He was gone, the tendrils of Something were all around.  
  
She persisted onward. Even with the small cuts she made, the reed would break if she kept at it. Little by little, step by step until finally it broke. This was the longest she had held her breath. She shoved Aubrey upwards, to the surface, putting herself further down. She could try to swim to the surface, but it was impossible now, wasn't it? Each stroke burned her lungs all the more. Her body would force her to take a breath before long, and it would all be over. She had to make sure Aubrey was safe, still. Or she could try.  
  
Another stroke, it was getting brighter. Still too far away. It was almost time... Just one more try... One last push... Her vision went white.  
  
Mari was coughing up water. She was aware of hands holding her in a slight cradling motion. Bleary shapes came into motion. Messy hair and a blue sweatshirt towered over her.  
  
"Oh... Hey there handsome..." Mari was sure she was dreaming, but it was fine in this case. She let herself go a bit limp. It was probably Kel or Aubrey who got her, if she was gotten at all.  
  
"Mari!" Aubrey's voice sounded from her left side. So she wasn't the one holding her. Well it would be fine.  
  
"Hi Mari... First I find out you're moving, and then I find you in the lake while I was looking for Kel. You're lucky that Basil yells so loud." Hero made a sheepish smile.  
  
Oh. It really was him.  
  
Basil was heard from somewhere out of sight. "Hero!! Is Mari okay?"  
  
"I think so. But we need to get her somewhere warm. And into dry clothes." Hero was extra careful picking her up. In only hurt a little bit along her back and arms. "Can we take her back to her house?"  
  
"Yeah, let's go." Aubrey collected her books and followed.  
  
Mari saw that Kel was kneeling by the lake in a daze.  
  
By the time they got to Mari's front door, she signified that she could walk again. Aubrey and Basil fell in along her sides.  
  
"It's been a long time since I've been inside..." Basil commented, then looked off to the side when he saw everyone was thinking about why that was the case. "Um... right. Do you think I could look around a little bit?"  
  
"Ye-HURRK!" Another vomit of water came up. Hero made to pat her on the back.  
  
Aubrey took Mari's arm around her, as if to support her. "Come on, I'll help you up the stairs." She had a false look of frustration on her face.  
  
"Aubrey." Hero started. "Can you keep an eye on Mari? I want to be there but... I'll be back tomorrow morning, okay?"  
  
"Yeah." Aubrey carried her friend in and shit the door. "Wow... it looks so empty."  
  
"But it's still really nostalgic. Look, you can see the stain where-" Basil stood next to a spot on the carpet and shut his mouth.  
  
"... That stuff is lethal. I stopped drinking it after I saw that stain." Aubrey rolled her teal eyes at the memory of the person who made it.  
  
Mari allowed Basil and Aubrey to help her up the stairs, even though it stung. That sensation suddenly rang a realization in her head. "I just need to use the bathroom, can you two excuse me for a bit?"  
  
The two exchanged a look and steadily allowed Mari to walk on her own, she waited until they went to her room and then entered the bathroom, pulling her shirt off. It hurt to pull the clinging material over herself. The reason was soon obvious in the mirror. Mari's right arm was covered in criss-crossing scars and cuts. Some deeper and some shallower, some not even a day old. Her left arm had a few jagged ones as well, not as many, but still enough to be difficult to pass off as cat scratches. She went through the medicine cabinet and found hydrogen peroxide, and prepared herself for the stinging sensation. She hissed as it bubbled and burned at her, gritting her teeth so that she wouldn't make any shouts. It never got easier to do, but she had to keep it up. She dove into that grimy lake without thinking, even with open wounds she had gotten from... Something. It had to be Something, they didn't just appear.  
  
Mari rinsed off her arms and heard a knock on the bathroom door.  
  
"Mari, I left some clothes by the door. I hope you don't mind but I took your last t-shirt until my stuff dries."  
  
"Mn... Alright, thank you! Sorry for the trouble!"  
  
"... Did you just say sorry after saving my life?"  
  
"Hehe, I guess I did! Sor- oop." Mari sent her cheery demeanor ahead of her before listening for the coast to be clear, snapping up the clothes and donning them in a flash. Long sleeves and shorts, just a little too warm. She turned to enter her room and found Aubrey in a pink polo shirt, without her ribbon but with jeans that were a touch too long on her. She was sitting at the desk, uselessly flipping through pages without reading them.  
  
"Hey Mari..? I'm sorry about what I said yesterday. I didn't mean it like that."  
  
"It's okay if you did. You're right, I haven't been around lately." Mari's eyes glossed over a bit. "Look what I've let happen to you all..."  
  
"What you let happen? Kel pushed me all on his own. He doesn't care anymore. He hasn't for four years."  
  
"... I don't think he meant to push you all the way into the lake. I bet he feels a lot of regret right now."  
  
"Regret..? After all the things he said? You heard him. I'm not a friend anymore, I'm just some thug."  
  
"No you're not, Aubrey." Basil had entered the room. His eyes were glazed with a thin layer of water. "I do think Mari is right, though. What Kel did was pretty awful, but I saw him after he noticed that you weren't coming up. It was like he went hollow. I've never seen him so scared before."  
  
"Basil... Do you really think he'd ever apologize to me?" Aubrey grit her teeth.  
  
"I think we should give him the chance to... Sorry, maybe I'm being a bit selfish but... " Basil wiped his eyes and knelt next to Aubrey, placing a hand on her knee. "I was supposed to come over here the day of the recital. I wanted to give Sunny some encouragement, you know? But my parents visited that day. Then I just never got the chance." He gave his most caring smile. "I think it's important to have that chance. You can decide what you want to do with it, but just having it is important!"  
  
Mari looked at the boy with the flower in his hair. This was the same boy that was always so soft and skittish, who was now trying to protect something of his own. She felt something cold in the pit of her stomach. The distant sound of a strangled gurgle from downstairs. She had to collect herself right now. She had made a certain promise with herself.  
  
"Right. It's like Basil said. We can go see Hero and him tomorrow, so that you don't leave anything unsaid. You can even stay over here while your clothes dry."

"...Fine. I'll try once. But only because you and Basil asked me to, okay? And because I'm not going home without my jacket." Aubrey huffed in a fake way with her last line.  
  
"I'll be right there with you too, if you want." Basil offered.  
  
"Do you really want to?"  
  
"I'd like to be there for my old friend." The flower boy smiled. "I bet he'll apologize, and if he doesn't, I'll even look the other way if you hit him with your bat!"  
  
"Basil! Mari's right there!"  
  
"Did he say bat?" Mari looked puzzled.  
  
"Oh you haven't seen it?" Basil smiled a little. "Oops... Mari, you should meet the leader of the ferocious scooter ga-"  
  
Aubrey covered Basil's mouth with her hands, red as a beet. "Basil... please..."  
  
The boy devolved into a fit of laughter. The two girls stared at him awhile before Aubrey gave Mari a questioning look.  
  
She answered by saying. "If you were worried Basil didn't see you as his friend, I think you got your answer. Even after it all, you can laugh together."  
  
Aubrey took another look before playfully punching the laughing Basil. She had a small smile on her face. A genuine one.  
  
"Will you really let us stay over tonight, Mari? I mean I'm glad, I'm not the only one who almost drowned today and I was hoping to make sure you were okay tonight. But is it okay?"  
  
"Sure it is." Mari said over a distant scraping sound that seemed to keep far, far away from Aubrey and Basil. "I'll get you some blankets."  
  
"I'll help." Aubrey stood.  
  
"Me too." Basil wiped his eye, and the three obtained some blankets from poorly-packed boxes. They worked together to lay out some bedding along the floor of Mari's room. Two blankets and several pillows made a space that Aubrey said was "very comfortable" and that Basil could have agreed to before he stubbed his toe on something hidden under the corner of a blanket. He pulled it back to reveal Aubrey's pile of books.  
  
"Ow... Oh, Aubrey these are all your books, is this why you're going to the library? Text books? College work?"  
  
"Hey!" Aubrey ran over to snatch them, but was halted by Mari's question.  
  
"Aubrey, are you studying to go to college?"

"I... I want to go to the same college you do, okay!? My grades are trash and I can't even buy good school books but I thought that if I was on the same campus as you some day then maybe... I don't know. The more I thought about it the better it seemed. I need a scholarship, so I've been working my butt off with these things. But it would be worth it if I could see... some people... and be out of that house."  
  
Mari instantly felt sick to her stomach. She felt like she was going to vomit at the mere mention of college.  
  
"Is this where you've been the past year? Why I haven't seen you with your other friends?"  
  
Mari felt even sicker, somehow. If she had anything meaningful in her stomach, it surely would have been gone by now at Aubrey's idealistic view.  
  
"Oh, you've got my photo album in with them! See? I knew it'd be safe with you!"  
  
Aubrey looked sidelong for a few seconds before broaching the next topic. She looked at Mari, and the words seemed to come out more easily.  
  
"Basil... Can we talk about why you gave me the photo album?"  
  
"Oh... I mean..."  
  
Mari saw her chance through the growing fog in her mind. Her chance to claw her way back out of herself.   
  
"She's worried about why you left your most important thing with her."  
  
"Worried? Why?"  
  
"Because people only give stuff like this away for big events." Aubrey looked uneasy as she said the words. "This album is precious to me too but... Basil, you aren't... Going away, are you?"   
  
"Going away? What do you-?" Basil's eyes widened in horror. "Oh! No! No, Aubrey, I'm sorry! I was just trying to-!" Basil caught his breath. "I was trying to keep it safe. I know how much you treasured it, you always used to ask to see it. I was hoping you would keep good care of it. You were the last person to stay in touch with me, after all."  
  
"Did you say to keep it safe?" Aubrey questioned.  
  
"...My parents were in town for the first time in years recently. I showed them my album and they told me that is wasn't good for me and should just be thrown in the trash. I'm a little worried what would happen if they were there and I wasn't."  
  
"Oh my god... That's awful! Why didn't you tell- Oh..." Aubrey put her hand solemnly on the album. "I don't know if I'm the best choice, though. You know... What my home is like, right Basil? But maybe there is someone who can watch over it." She looked to her friend. "Mari. Take it with you."  
  
"Oh no, I don't really deserve something like this."  
  
"Why not? These are your memories too. You're our friend, you made these with us."  
  
Mari looked to both of them and considered the word. "Friend." It wasn't right at all, but they had seen her as a friend.  
  
"Fine. You're right. I'll keep it as safe as I can."  
  
"There, now that that's settled, I'm exhausted." Aubrey stretched and laid herself onto the blankets. "I..." She turned, looking away from the other two as she said the next word. "Thanks."  
  
There was a peaceful moment shared in the lingering gratitude. One only broken when the flower boy stood.

"Uh... Where do I sleep?" Basil asked.  
  
"Just right there. It's fine. We're all friends here." Aubrey kept her eyes closed.  
  
"Friends." Basil yawned and smiled. "I like hearing that again. Thank you, Mari, for giving me a chance to explain and give the album a good home."  
  
"It was all you guys, I was just here." Mari said with a smile as she laid down. She recounted the words of gratitude and felt her heart tear a little.


	4. One Day Left

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also called the chapter that has Black Space in it

\---This is White Space. I keep seeing you here, waiting for me to do something.---  
  
Nieta watched the girl in the long sleeves lie on her own blanket. She watched her eyes tinge from indifference to disgust, and frankly, a spark of something much more sinister. Hope.  
  
"Do you really think they'll let us be with them again?" Nieta said.  
  
The girl didn't answer, she merely closed her eyes and vanished.  
  
Nieta shook her head and went through the door, to all of her friends. Aubrey, Kel, Basil, Hero, and Sunny all stood welcoming her.  
  
No. They didn't. Nieta didn't want this one, let them fade away. This wasn't going to be seen today, she wanted to be alone. She had already dreamed of them today in such a sickening way, she would just leave on her own.  
  
\---Waiting for something to happen?---  
  
The playground was empty. A thick fog hung everywhere Nieta looked. Things became hazy and hard to navigate, she could barely take a few steps into the mist without finding herself back at the stump. The ladder to Otherworld was impossible to get to, there was no flash to guide her to Rolling Woods, Pinwheel Forest was blank beyond the swings and slides.   
  
Nieta decided she would go to the beach. She would make sand castles and listen to the waves. Maybe skip rocks along the pier.  
  
Or maybe she wouldn't do any of that. A figure stood on the pier. A boy with bluish hair and a sweater vest stood, looking out over the waves.  
  
"Oh... Hi sis." Sunny gave a small wave. Nieta stood stock still, and the boy continued. "I can't find anyone, and there's a lot of fog. Not here though." Sunny shuffled his feet. "They might be across the sea. Will you help me look for them?"  
  
Nieta was suddenly powerless before a cry for help. Her shoulders fell a bit and she walked aside her little brother, patting him on the head once and with a strain, jumped into the water, swallowing images of reedy tendrils. Sunny jumped in afterwards, finding his sister's arms to steady himself. Sunny smiled a little when he found his sea legs, and swam alongside Nieta. Quite breaststrokes struggled over the ever-present sound of waves and unseen seagulls, until the pair found their way to a maze of freestanding piers. Nieta helped her brother up the pier and began to navigate from on side to the other, through the misty air.

"Nieta... You're not afraid of the water as much anymore." Sunny said, looking this way and that over the ocean. "That means you're scared of something else, aren't you?"  
  
Nieta's back prickled at the words. Sunny was acting... odd. He shouldn't be _here_ at all and yet _here_ he was. Walking along behind her as shadows played and laughed at the edges of her vision, on islands surrounded by planks. She had just turned to see a few having a picnic when she heard from behind her.  
  
"Is it okay to forget something important?"  
  
Nieta whipped around and couldn't find the voice behind her. Instead, Sunny was in front of her, on the ocean's surface, standing in front of a tall curtain.  
  
"It's scary to talk to other people. But they're just as scared, aren't they? That they're really understanding the person that they're listening to. Friends are, at least. They care about the person inside."  
  
Nieta grit her teeth, she could feel words trying to break out beneath her calm.  
  
"Ah. This is it. I'm sorry for coming out here like this." Sunny's appearance changed, to the more ghostly boy Nieta had dreamed of at the lake. "I hope... You can meet them again... Mari..." The boy was taken beyond the curtain, which faded as it accepted him. Nieta leapt in after him, reaching out. Only to suddenly be swallowed by ebony waters the instant she jumped out. Nieta tumbled through the dark and the surf, unsure where she was being dragged. Ground slammed into her feet and she found herself at a small pastel island. There was no mist any longer. Seagulls crowed happily, and a whale "whale-comed" the sun with a flap of its tail fin. The ocean was welcoming once again, how she remembered it from last time. She looked around the island with a glance. There was a well with a sign on it:  
  
_Ready to go underwater for college? Take the Deep Well to the Undersea Campus!_

Nieta grit her teeth and descended into the well and the warm waters within. These weren't the suffocating waters of her dreams, they were clear, bright, and easy to breathe in. Even if they did carry along bubbles that got into your eye occasionally. Nieta grumbled all the way down. She had been carried into a new old adventure without any input from her. This one was where everyone was missing, and she would play the heroic role of storming the Undersea Campus, a college that was entirely underwater. Of course, she she would find all of the playground children there, attending classes and the like, eventually finding her own closest friends after a fight with Principle Jawesome the Student Loan Shark. Even after fighting, she would have to find a way to pay back their debts, which was usually achieved by the new couple of Captain Spaceboy and Sweetheart. It seems the new pair was having difficulty feeling like a couple, and were thinking it was the same as when they were friends. So, a series of antics would ensue, attempting to set the mood and getting them to kiss, only to end in the both of them attacking the party in a fluster and finding that they were totally comfortable next to each other, and maybe that was what love was all ab-  
  
Stupid. The more that Nieta thought about the upcoming adventure the worse off it all seemed. The more she simply didn't want to go along that route. The entire thing felt like ash in her mouth. It felt silly and shallow. She found a disturbingly large piece of her mind wanting to go back to sleep and find out what happened next.  
  
Nieta kicked a nearby mussel and turned away from the undersea campus. It was time to talk to someone else. That meant going deeper and deeper. The Deeper Well.  
  
Nieta went against the highway and walked through several toll gates, gazing over sites where carpenter fish were building shipwrecks or ranches of sea cows. All the way down the road where it became too dark to see any longer. The Deeper Well would be around here somewhere, though it didn't look like the Deep Well. Instead, it was just a spiraling staircase down into dark waters. The sea life down here was all bioluminescent, so it wasn't like she was at the very deepest part. She could still see where she was going. All the way down to the bottom where there was a pink door. On it was a purple heart with a name in it:  
  
_Abbi_  
  
Nieta went to knock on the door but was interrupted by a singsong voice.  
  
"Come in!"  
  
Nieta opened the door. It was a cutesy sort of room, with stuffed animals modeled after sea life. A bed with frilly pillows was laid out to the left of the entrance, and a mirror was on the far wall opposite that. In the corner was a computer desk with figurines and some few more stuffed animals. Sitting and tending to it all was a girl in a dress with frills on the shoulders. She had blonde hair, but two tentacles joined her locks, one on each side of her head. Each arm and leg also became a tentacle past the elbow and knee, respectively. She turned and gave a spike-toothed grin.   
  
"It's that time again, huh Nieta?"  
  
Nieta didn't respond.  
  
"You know, I don't think, in all the times you've come down here, I've ever thanked you for keeping my friend's world safe. Sure it's a little different, but it can't be helped when the foundations are changed that much."  
  
Nieta sat on the bed, looking at on particular plush.  
  
"I know... It's not my place to say. You're down here because you're looking for the truth, something a bit deeper than the same stories you've lived through time and time again. It's all breaking through. The chef boy will always find it because he was there that night, and Sunny will always know it and push you towards it. I wonder if it's because he wants to apologize, be apologized to, or have you apologize to yourself. Well I say I wonder, but I think we both know, even if we don't really know."  
  
Nieta looked at a poster on the wall.  
  
"The boy who keeps leaving the safety of the picnic blanket and the boy you always keep just barely out of reach from but always run towards. Ah, if you're looking for the latter I'm sure he's somewhere with the truth of it all, where he always gets too close to. You already know that though. This time it's all where the doubts started, isn't it?" Abbi continued smiling, but when Nieta wouldn't engage, she simply turned back to her computer and continued. "That appearance is a powerful armor. But for all its strengths it has just as many drawbacks. After all, the dress you wore when you saved my friend is the same dress that you discovered a fear of drowning in, if I can make a metaphor." Abbi looked back again and found Nieta standing in front of a reflectionless mirror. "Maybe the time for metaphors is over though. The end is nigh. Holding to this world is noble, but it's not his most precious thing, is it? I wonder if he'll ever see his most precious thing again..."  
  
Abbi rose and waved a "hand" over the mirror.  
  
"You always come and listen to my advice, at least. I think that gives me hope for Sunny's dreams. It all ends at the chef's house, if you're ready."  
  
Nieta spared another look at the strange girl before crawling through the mirror, becoming swallowed by the dark until she found a small door. A cabinet to that place she had started out. The Neighbor's Room. She looked around the empty playroom once more, to the door of white space again. She checked her jump rope and found it knotted into a loop. A noose. It was time. All of this silliness... Too much of her wanted to wake.  
  
She followed the misty forest path against her better judgement. Deep, deep into the woods where a treehouse stood in a shadowy grove. She tossed her noose over one branch. Instead of placing the loop around her neck though, she saw the shadow it made on the ground. It wasn't the shadow of a loop of rope, but a hole. Nieta considered it for a moment, and then jumped in. Falling down. Farther and farther. Past the Deep and Deeper wells, below the Library, below everything. Falling and falling into the abyss below.  
  
\---Welcome to Black Space---  
  
Nieta woke to the darkness all around her. Shadows of past places abounded, and became strange. The cloud trees had frozen lightning hanging from them, and tulips swayed in unison to a nonexistent breeze. From that to the stairs of her home, where a boy lay with a shard of a broken violin piercing the back of his neck. Nieta ran up to him and turned him over coldly in her arms. His eyes were open, and a sickly hole was torn into his chest.  
  
His arms snapped to her neck, and she was dragged down even deeper.  
  
She woke on a black picnic blanket in and endless black expanse. Her sketchbook was here, filled with scrawls of poetry and hateful words. There was a laptop but the screen was broken, and battery run cold. Doors abounded, lined in white.  
  
Nieta walked to one such door. Next to it was a single white key. Not one like a house key, but like on a piano. Nieta picked it up in a dispassionate way, inserting the thin end into the door. It unlocked for her.  
  
Twisted life abounded. Fish like wrung-out towels. Crows with stakes in their wings. Nieta walked among the screams until she saw a tall shadow with a familiar shape.  
  
".... You're here. These rooms are broken and disjointed, but the root of everything is somewhere in here... Find it. For both of us..."  
  
Nieta walked through him and picked up another piano key, lurching space around her. Grey, misshapen houses lined the way. In front of each was a scribble of a Magical Heart. Each poorly formed and only capable of screaming.  
  
"When we hid the truth, we did it to protect the younger ones... Instead of relying on them when we needed them most, we built a wall for them to play safely in. Can we even call them friends if we keep treating them like they're somehow in our care and us not in theirs?"  
  
The next piano key found Nieta on an enormous kitchen floor. Drops of red fell onto checkered tiles, and knives hailed as well on every tile except the one she was on.  
  
"I miss you, Mari. You were always there for me. You knew what I wanted to be and encouraged me, so please, let me reach you too."  
  
Nieta was now in a fleshy room. Each wall was covered in lacerations, and in many of those cuts, an eye could be found, looking at her. Crying blood. Whispers from barely-familiar voices rang in her ears. Whispers about what a freak she was. About what an attention whore she could be.  
  
"Back then, I didn't know what to do, everyone left and I couldn't help anyone. Least of all you. When you shut yourself away with what happened I felt so powerless. Seeing you again after so long... I don't know what to say. I waited for so long to see you and then you just appear again, but still you're so far away.  
  
Another scene. The Hero with dark red hair was putting the finishing touches on a cake. He says to come and see, but when its cut open, a cake-slice comes out of him instead, leaving a perfect cross-section of his organs and meat. Cats come and eat the piece remaining.  
  
"Have you been hiding the truth, or running from it? We have a chance to face it together but... Do you still want to be at my side after everything? Will you set me free? Will you set yourself free?"  
  
This time she was in an upside-down living room. One shadow was moving like he was yelling, but only whispers about how pretending everything was perfect was too much. He wanted out.  
  
"Mari... I've seen your pain too. The pain you're still in. And still, I'll always come for you."  
  
Nieta was in the Neighbor's Room. She had found Hero again. But the room was far and away too long. This Hero was excited to see his friends again when he spotted them by the stairs, only to be held tight by "Kel" and "Aubrey" as "Basil" dumped a flowerpot full of spiders onto him. The scurried over him, biting and tearing until nothing was left... Nieta left the playroom and found herself in front of a church like the one from her dreams. The ceiling was far too tall. And from it, dangling by a red line, was another dream Hero.  
  
"Nieta..." He said. "Help me..." Red dripped over him, as he was pulled up. Nieta hung on tight and they were launched into the dark. Into a room where crimson shone in from a glass door. Hero rubbed his wrists and looked out the door.  
  
"Do you hear that?" Hero said.  
  
Nieta did. She walked in front of the door. This was at an end, now. This is where she wanted to be. The door slid open, and Hero made to step in front of Nieta, but she easily pushed him aside, where dark tendrils, long strands of hair, held him fast.  
  
"It..! It hurts! What are you doing? Where are you-!" Hero stopped as his neck was snapped by a loop of hair.  
  
Nieta stepped outside and sat in a noose like it was a swing. She rose into the sanguine air, allowing her tendrils to break the small house below. For the first time today, she spoke.  
  
"Enough."  
  
\---...---  
  
Mari woke on the floor, her last images were of Nieta looking her straight in the eye from her throne. She gasped several times and then went to check on her friends. Aubrey was sleeping soundly, but Basil was nowhere to be found.  
  
She could hear something, though, a violin was playing one half of a song. It was downstairs, in the piano room. Mari quickly chased it.  
  
A boy stood. He was deathly pale with short dark hair. He made the motions of a violin though he held none, and sound came out.  
  
"You liked this song a lot." He said.  
  
Mari took a step forward.  
  
"It's not complete without your part. You would practice it again and again for hours."  
  
Sunny focused on his fingers for a second.  
  
"I hated it though. I felt like it was ruining everything. I liked it at first but... You weren't wrong. It takes effort to be good at something."  
  
"I... I..." Mari couldn't find her words this time.  
  
"I'm sorry. Would you still let me play with you? Even after what I did?"  
  
"...Of course I would. But do you really want to play with me after I..."

Sunny made a small, small smile and nodded. Mari walked up to the piano and everything stopped.  
  
"Mari? Sorry... I couldn't sleep. I thought I heard music." Basil was standing in the doorway. "That must sound crazy, huh?"  
  
Mari could only stand there, looking at her feet. Basil tried his best to give a reassuring smile, and sat on the bench like he used to when he came over to listen to Sunny play.  
  
"Sometimes I feel like he's around, or I see him in my dreams. It's hard to imagine, one day he just fell and then we just never see him again. I used to be scared of even going outside after awhile, after Aubrey and Kel stopped checking in. Random accidents like that... I wondered why the world wanted to take away Sunny. Sometimes I even wondered if it was my fault for l-" Basil stopped. "A-anyway. You shouldn't be up this late either. Let's go back to sleep. I'll be back upstairs in a minute. I just..."  
  
Mari put her hand on Basil's shoulder and gave him the best reassuring smile she could manage. She went upstairs and tried as hard as she could to sleep, finding dreamless dark instead as she listened to Basil's quiet sobs.  
  
\---One day left---  
  
Mari woke alone. Aubrey and Basil were nowhere around, and the blankets had been put away. That was fine, just about what she expected, it seemed Aubrey hadn't wanted to talk to Kel after all. There was a new message on her phone, so she hit play.  
  
"Mari, it's Mommy! Tomorrow's the big day. Oh! I gave the movers the keys, so don't be worried if you see people inside the house. I'll be out of town just one more day, but I'll pick you up tomorrow. Just come out when you're ready. Okay, Mommy loves you!" bzzt.  
  
Mari rubbed her arm a little. Maybe today she should finish the chores. she'd be alone anyway, so it was as good a time as any.  
  
"Rise and shine!! Oh, you're already risen." Basil had appeared in the doorway, flower in hair and smile on his face.

"Basil? What are you doing here?"  
  
"Making breakfast as thanks for letting me stay the night! Oh, and Aubrey found your chore list, she's probably already done them all. I think she's trying to say thank you, as well."  
  
Mari couldn't believe it. Her friends were still here and doing all this.  
  
"Aw... You guys didn't have to do that."  
  
"No we didn't, but we did anyway. Come on downstairs. I'm not a good a chef as Hero but I can at least fry bacon."  
  
Mari and Basil found Aubrey downstairs, munching on a slice of bacon. She was wearing her old clothes again, apparently they had dried overnight. She raised a mug to her lips and grimaced.  
  
"Aubrey... Do you want sugar? Or cream?"  
  
"Hmph! I like my coffee black, okay?" She took another sip and coughed into her mug, eliciting smiles from the other two. "Shut up! Or else I'll eat your bacon too!"

The pair quickly prepared their plates and sat at the counter as well. They all ate in an amiable fashion, with Basil sneaking three spoonfuls of sugar into Aubrey's coffee when she wasn't looking. Aubrey was just feeling prideful over her newfound tolerance when there was a knock on the door.  
  
"Who knocks on a door with a 'FOR SALE' sign in front of it?" Aubrey asked as she headed to the door. Basil blushed a little. The pair took another bite of their breakfast before hearing the shout from the living room.  
  
"What are you doing here!?"  
  
"Me!? What are you doing here!?"  
  
Basil and Mari exchanged a look before finding the source. Mari silently thought that was the most she had eaten in three days.  
  
Aubrey and Kel were at a standoff over the threshold. Hero was attempting to stand between the two of them as the remainder of the group arrived.  
  
"Why do you keep following me around lately!?"  
  
"I didn't know you were here!"  
  
"Both of you, hold it." Mari interjected. "Let's talk. For real."  
  
Basil spoke up as well. "I think it'd be sad to let Mari's last memories in town be of you two fighting over something that's my fault. Please. We're all friends, aren't we?"  
  
The five looked at each other. When the silence grew deafening, Hero took it up.  
  
"What do you mean by it being your fault, Basil?"  
  
"I mean Kel thought that Aubrey had stolen my photo album. But that's not what happened at all. I was just trying to get her to take care of it so that my parents couldn't throw it away. They tried to the last time they were in town."  
  
"They did? That's awful!" Kel said. "If I had known that..."  
  
"If you had known that then what? You wouldn't have blamed me? You wouldn't have pushed me!? If Mari wasn't there, if Hero wasn't there-!!" She stomped once. "Why wouldn't you just believe me in the first place, Kel?" Aubrey spoke now.  
  
"I mean... You always run with the scooter gang now. It's like you're a different person now. Ever since..."  
  
"Ugh! That's just like you! You always get so self-righteous about everything! You always act like you're better than everyone!" Aubrey sniffled. "If you hate me so much then why do you keep getting involved and making it your business!?"  
  
"But..." Kel started. "I... I didn't mean it... Aubrey..." He was having a hard time speaking.  
  
"Alright, alright..." Hero interjected. "I think I see the problem here."  
  
"I think I do too. Mari stepped a bit behind Aubrey, giving her best sly look to Hero. "And the only way to fix it..."  
  
"...Is to give you a helping hand!" Hero slid behind Kel and pushed him forward as Mari pushed Aubrey. The two collided into a forced sort of hug.  
  
"Hey!!" Aubrey shouted, trying to extricate herself, but finding Mari at her back and Hero firmly stuck to Kel's. They were swiftly joined by Basil, who helped hold the squabbling pair together.  
  
"We're all friends here. We have another chance to listen to each other right now. So isn't there something you'd like to have Aubrey listen to, Kel?"  
  
Kel gulped and stopped struggling, doing his best to join the hug effort. "...I'm sorry, Aubrey. I'm sorry that I pushed you. No. More than that... I'm... I'm sorry that I didn't believe you. I almost lost... my friends..." Tears fell freely down his face as the full weight of what he did began to lay on him.  
  
Everyone could see the tears gathering in Aubrey's eyes now. They stood like that awhile longer before she finally said. "I... I accept okay? Let go, we look like a bunch of idiots."  
  
"We are a bunch of idiots." Hero said. "Hey. This all started with the photo album. Why don't we end it with it? Let's have another look through. Aubrey has it, right?"  
  
"I gave it to Mari for safekeeping, considering..."  
  
"Mari has it?" Hero looked over, and then relaxed a little. "Well, I'm glad it's safe, then."  
  
"Do you think we can go to the old treehouse to see it? Together?" Kel wiped his eyes clear as best he could.  
  
"The old treehouse huh? I haven't been there in so long..." Aubrey added.  
  
"Is that okay, Mari?" Basil asked.  
  
"Yes, of course it is."  
  
Mari collected the album and went outside. Just past a tall tree with a stuck-out branch where an old jump rope was forgotten, to another clearing where the old hangout was. Kel and Hero tested the ladder before they all went inside. The treehouse had definitely seen better days, the carpet was tattered and there were discolored toys here and there, as well as an old toaster Kel had brought in for reasons none of them fully understood. They all gathered around the table, where Mari laid the book out for everyone to see. Old memories of rainy days, parties at the beach, the first days of the treehouse, and Christmas time all shone through. Each one stabbed through Mari like an icicle, but this was for them.

"Man... We used to have a lot of fun together." Kel sighed.  
  
"We still can, you know." Basil chimed in. "We're still friends."  
  
"That's right, we can." Hero smiled.  
  
"Then what do we do?" Aubrey fussed with her ribbon a second.  
  
"Why don't we all spend time together on Mari's last day here?"  
  
"Oh. You guys don't need to go through all that trouble, it's-"  
  
"A great idea." Aubrey said.   
  
"Yeah... Let's go!" Kel kipped up and Mari, instantly defeated, allowed herself to be pulled along in the flow.  
  
For the last time, the friends left the treehouse. Mari pondered over how all the things they had done in the past were still with them, but they were choosing to go together in the future. Maybe... maybe...  
  
As they were leaving, A woman with blonde hair was running up the street. Basil took note, because he stepped forward.  
  
"Polly? What's wrong?"  
  
"Basil! Thank god you're still here... Your grandmother... She's being taken to the hospital."  
  
"Grandma's going to the hospital?" The color left Basil's face. "What h-happened?"  
  
"I don't know... Her breathing was very uneven all of a sudden, so I called the ambulance. The paramedics are at our house now, if you hurry you can still make it with them to the hospital."  
  
"I... Guys, I..." Basil was at a loss for words. Hero was the one to step forward.  
  
"Go on. We'll be here when you come back. Okay? You won't be alone."  
  
"Yeah. Go on Basil, this is important. We'll be waiting." Aubrey waved him on.  
  
"Guys... Thank you." Basil sniffled and hurried after Polly. The remaining four all stood on the sidewalk.  
  
"Well, what will we do until Basil comes home?" Aubrey itched her arm.  
  
"Let's ask Mari. What would you like to see? This is your last day after all."  
  
Mari considered her situation. She was worried over Basil, but she was also just invited to see him tonight, when she wasn't sure if she even had the right to. But seeing Aubrey, Kel, and especially Hero... Hero of all people! She decided to have another dream.  
  
"Let's go to the park again."  
  
\---An ORANGE CAT looks at you. Would you like to feed it some fish?---  
  
Mari was watching Kel and Aubrey fight in a much calmer manner. They were playing one-on-one basketball since Hero got tired. It was a tie game, half-due to the fact that fouls weren't called in street ball, another half due to the fact that Kel seemed content for once to let Aubrey win, if it happened.  
  
"So... It's um... It's been awhile." Hero said.  
  
"It has... Kel said you were going to college?"  
  
"Yeah... My parents finally won, I guess. They're right, medicine is the smart choice going forward. Ah. Sorry that sounds... Kel told me that you helped with picking out a gift. It was a lot more thoughtful than he could have done alone. Last time he got me a comic in the middle of a series I never read."  
  
"Oh... That sounds like Kel, all right!" Mari shuffled her feet in the grass. "How'd you end up getting him to come over today?"  
  
"I just talked to him. He was in a total shock when I went to get him at the lake. He would just sit there at the pier saying he was sorry and how stupid he was, over and over again. I was really worried for awhile. He just stood there until I told him that she was still... And we needed to apologize to her." Hero sighed. "I shouldn't have left, everything nearly fell apart."  
  
"No... I shouldn't have either. I let Sunny's precious friends get into such a state. I'm a really terrible big sister sometimes."  
  
"..."  
  
"..."  
  
"You know... They're our friends too, aren't they? It's alright to care about them."  
  
"Basil said something like that too. You're both way too nice.. Especially to me."  
  
"Mari, I... Maybe we can... I mean are you still...?" The words failed Hero. He had too much to say and too much he couldn't say. Instead, he sat in place. "I still care."  
  
"Look at this. Mari and Hero. It's just like old times." Kel had a contented look on his face.

"Remember when they used to hug in secret when they thought we weren't looking?"  
  
"Or wash dishes together."  
  
"Or fight over who's cookies were better."  
  
"Now, now you two..." Hero sheepishly grinned. "The answer is obviously Mari."  
  
"No it's Hero." Mari allowed herself a laugh for the first time in a long time. Small, barely a cough, but there all the same.  
  
"Jeez. Get a room already, weirdos." Aubrey huffed in a fake way.  
  
The four friends continued their day. They visited the lake together, even if they stayed far from the pier, and talked about why Kel always carried a basketball with him, and laughed more than a little when he said it was for self defense. They went to play video games at Kel and Hero's house, where Hero was scared stiff of a spider before Mari took it outside in her own two hands. They stopped in the comic store, where Mari learned that Magical Heart was still getting issues even now. She was totally lost on the plot but couldn't help having a little interest. Finally they went to Othermart in the late afternoon to buy food to bring to Basil's house. So he wouldn't be hungry.  
  
"Oh, they sell hair dye here..." Aubrey picked up a bottle of the stuff. "Hey Mari... do you remember when you wanted to dye your hair purple?"  
  
"Huh? Oh yeah... I guess I did."  
  
"Heh... I was going to dye my hair pink with you. Do you think I could pull it off?"  
  
"I think you'd look cute with pink hair. You always liked pink, didn't you?"  
  
"Pink is still my favorite color."  
  
"Then you should, I think it'd look great."  
  
"Maybe. If you dye your hair purple with me."  
  
"... Alright. Maybe one day I'll come and visit and we can do it." Mari couldn't help but smile a little at the idea. Her and Aubrey, acting like friends again.  
  
The pair looked as Kel juggled one too many dinner items and shouted after him to share the load, before going to Basil's house. Kel bought an expired Orange Joe on the way, and they walked as the sun began to sink. Kel was the one to knock on the door, being greeted by the caretaker named Polly.  
  
"Oh... You're Basil's friends. He's not back yet, I'm afraid. Wait... What's with all those bags?"  
  
"Hi, Polly. We're all here to help you make dinner for when he comes home." Hero said.

"Oh! You really don't have to-"  
  
"We want to! Besides, Hero's going to cook for the first time in forever, I'm sure no one would want to miss this!" Kel was grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh, well... If it's something you want to do for him then... Yes, come on in." Polly stepped inside and held the door wide for the group. Plants were carefully placed and lined into racks. Each was hale and green, if not in full bloom. A small kitchenette was in the northwest corner, where they all put down the full bags of food.  
  
"Polly, can you show me where you keep some things?" Hero rummaged for a ham and placed it on the counter.  
  
"Yes, allow me."  
  
When everything was set, Hero stood over the ham, eyes closed and gathering himself. His hand shook slightly as he took a chef's knife and laid it on the ham to score it.  
  
"Hero? Are you okay?" Kel held onto his brother's shoulder. "I know you haven't cooked in a while, but if it's you, I know it'll turn out good!"  
  
"Heh... Don't have too much confidence. I was never a fantastic chef."  
  
"What!? Your food was always the best!" Aubrey nearly shouted as she dropped off carrots on the counter.  
  
"Just average, I'm afraid." Hero tried to smile them off before gathering himself again. "But for Basil, I'll do my best." He began to score the ham. The first few cuts were shaky, and a little crooked, but as his friends all stood by his side they became more and more sure. "Ah Mari, could you help with the glaze?"  
  
"Me?" Mari said it more inquisitively than she meant to. She was being invited to be alongside them all. In the kitchen. To cook alongside Hero... All of her friends, even. She had just been watching together, seeing them interact as they should.  
  
But maybe...  
  
"Yeah, of course." Hero made an inviting gesture, and Mari joined the others in putting together a meal.  
  
\---An empty picnic basket. Would you like to save?---  
  
When the stars had just begun to shine, Basil came home. He was pale, and his eyes were watery. He sniffled as his friends piled in around him.  
  
"Basil... Are you okay?" Aubrey was the first to reach out.  
  
"G-grandma... she..." Basil had a hard time getting the words out.  
  
"It's okay Basil. We're here." Hero joined.  
  
Kel stepped up as well. "Yeah, we'll be here for you."  
  
"Th-thanks guys... I think I just need... a minute..!" Basil ran off for his room, tears streaming from his face.  
  
The remaining four friends all looked to one another. Each at a loss for what to say until Aubrey cleared her throat.  
  
"I think we should stay over tonight, and make sure Basil is okay."  
  
"Yeah... I haven't been the best friend lately. But I want to be there for him now." Kel was the first to agree with Aubrey. Mari and Hero knew what an occasion this was. She wasn't sure what he was thinking, but she knew she couldn't just leave now and throw all of her work away.  
  
She couldn't just throw her friends away. The thought left another tear in her heart. But if they could all stand here in this kitchen as though four years hadn't passed...  
  
They laid out blankets and all sat to watch late-night shows together. Aubrey had first attempted to let Mari have the couch, but then fought Kel for it when she had turned it down. The house was still when Basil came back out of his room. He was still sniffling as he approached.  
  
"Oh... You're all still here."  
  
"Of course we're here." Aubrey replied, sitting up a little. "We're here for you like, if you want to talk, you know."  
  
"Thank you..." Basil teared up again, then moved on fully to bawling out the last words. "Thank you for being here! For me!"  
  
Aubrey took her blanket and hugged Basil with it.  
  
Kel took his blanket and hugged Basil with it.  
  
Hero took longer before he joined with his blanket, saying, "What are friends for?"  
  
Mari halted. Then took her blanket and hugged her friends with it. Together, in a big pile, they all slept. For her last few waking moments, Mari wondered if...  
  
Wondered if...


	5. Everything is Going to be Okay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains scenes parallel to the end of OMORI

\---Welcome to White Space. It's ~~not~~ your fault...---  
  
Mari woke up in the endless expanse of White Space. She looked at her own hands. She was wearing the long-sleeved shirt she was wearing when she fell asleep. She afforded herself a look around. She, personally, hadn't been to White Space, hadn't explored it, in so, so long. Her footsteps echoed endlessly, finding nothing to hear them, until a white blanket came into view. There was a black tissue box, a sketch book, and a laptop on it, all under a black light bulb that was hung from the ceiling. Wherever the ceiling was. Standing there, in the middle of it all, was a girl who was just barely shorter than her, with waist-length black hair. Her black dress sharply contrasted her white skin. She stood and silently watched Mari with a look that would have been disdain, if it wasn't so hollow.  
  
Mari ignored her, walking past and under the light bulb. It was time now. All of her friends, all of the feelings she could have felt with them, all of the emotions that fell on a dulled heart. It would have to be over. It was time to stop running from them.  
  
The light bulb fell into her hand. She considered it a moment, and its black glow. Well no, it didn't quite glow black, all darkness here was drawn to it, like a reverse of a normal light bulb that casts light. That's why everything was white here.  
  
Mari smashed the light bulb, and everything was dark.  
  
One spot of red existed in the dark. A red ooze with limbs poking out of it at odd angles and a shadowy center where there was a single crimson eye. Mari stood across from Something, and the two seemed to consider one another. Then, in a slow, creeping moment, The hands with bleeding fingers reached for her and dragged her into the shadows. She thought, first, to swipe at it with her box cutter. Then remembered her arm, the new marks. She couldn't just run and slash. She had to collect herself.  
  
The scene lurched and now there was Something at the bottom of the stairs. Something that pulled her down. Something with long hair and a jagged, wooden mouth. Right over the place there could have been another body. Where she _said_ there was a boy's body.  
  
She tried to calm down again, finding herself at the top of the stairs, in the flashing thunderstorm. The crooked face in the window with its instant stabbing teeth and grasping hands. The lighting that cast shadows on the floor that looked like a familiar boy.   
  
She had to focus on what was really, truly happening, on what her real target was. She could see it more clearly before she found herself upside-down, under the water. Her lungs began to burn, she saw the reedy tendrils wrapped around her. She made to cut them, to get out. She was afraid, but she had to still her heart, she had to keep trying. She had to keep persisting or she would drown here. Like the boy almost did that day.  
  
Something fuzzy, white and red was on the dark ground in front of her.  
  
Red oozed from it. Mari couldn't bear to look at it once again, but she had to. The thing that haunted her and Hero's dreams, that followed them wherever they went. Calm down.  
  
Red kept oozing out, but it was still a blur. She had to focus. Her heart was hammering out of her chest. It felt like she might have a heart attack, her entire body was screaming at her to leave.  
  
She had to stay and see this. She had to properly stay there and see. Persist.  
  
Her lungs tightened and she couldn't breathe. Is this what he felt? In his last few moments? His body simply refusing to work? No, she had to see this properly. Persist.  
  
She felt sick and unsteady. The feeling of spinning overtook her. She felt faint. Her back burned, her arms burned, her heart felt like it would explode. Persist!!  
  
The red blot of the floor was mostly in focus. It would be over soon... She just had to hang on. She steadied her heart little by little. It was time to really open her eyes. Overcome.  
  
Her eyes had a tinge of light for the first time since she got here. She found a light bulb where something had once been, and picked it up.  
  
Mari found herself on her home street. It was a touch too bright, too pastel, but it was home. She walked numbly to her house, just to find Hero in front of his own.  
  
"Mari... You finally came." He gave her a smile. "The truth of that day as been hidden for a long time, hasn't it? Seeing it might set us both free but... Well. You have to stay strong when you do see it. Are you ready?"  
  
"...I... I don't know."  
  
"If you don't know in your head, then what does your heart tell you?"  
  
"To go forward."  
  
"Then go on. Be ready, Mari."  
  
Hero stepped out of the sidewalk and allowed her to continue. She slid her key into the door of her and Sunny's house. She opened the door to a shadowy room filled with a red light. It was her living room, fully furnished again. A picture of a mom, a dad, a brother, and a sister hung on the wall. The television was on, showing scenes she recognized.  
  
A mother hugged her daughter in the bathroom, begging her not to go too. The girl's arm was bleeding. She had a box cutter in her left hand.  
  
A girl told classmates that she was studying and couldn't join a club. She just went home and laid on her bed.  
  
A girl wrapped herself in a blanket and ignored the knocking on her door. Her arm was covered in red lines.  
  
A girl told all of her friends she was going away to college. She hadn't studied or applied anywhere. She stayed in her room, ashamed. When she was alone, she wouldn't have to lie anymore, she didn't have to be okay to the people who relied on her, because no one would rely on her.  
  
Mari felt something dripping down her face. A spot on her head was bleeding. She continued to the next room and found herself on top of the stairs.  
  
It was time.  
  
A brother argued loudly, saying that he would never be good enough. He threw his violin down the stairs. His sister shouted at him for all the hard work that was lost. She got close, into his face. She couldn't believe that he could be so callous. He just shut off though, so she yelled louder, she got closer, anything to break through and make him understand that what he did, what he's been doing, was wrong and that pain is all part of practice! That he had just forsaken all of his friends' hard work and this wouldn't be a problem if he just practiced more and-!  
  
The sister was pushed away. She had confronted him on the stairs. She fell down, crumpling at the bottom, motionless. The brother's eyes went wide with fear and he ran down to check on her. He reached out a hand to touch, but saw the broken splinters and shards embedded firmly in her back. Tears gathered in his eyes and he began panting, clutching at his shirt. Repeating over and over again how he hadn't meant to do that, that he was sorry, that she needs to wake up. Instead, she was still, and the boy walked to the kitchen, his eyes had gone dead.  
  
Mari felt something wet on her back, the impaling shards dug into her all over again. She walked into the darkened kitchen. She took out the light bulb and screwed it into the lamp. The brother was sitting on the floor, knife in hand. His breathing was ragged, and became steadier and steadier as time went on. As he put the point to his chest. He offered his apology again. He begged for mercy for his sister. The only that he found though, was when he plunged the knife in. The front door opened. Mari felt the scars on her arms open again, red dripped down her fingers. She watched the rest play from the doorway of the kitchen.  
  
Hero walked in, wondering why it was so quiet. He found Mari lying at the foot of the stairs. He rushed to her and worked to rouse her, being so very careful with the bleeding girl. She gently woke, and was held as tight as he dared to. She asked where Sunny was, and what had happened. The pair wondered as they heard a gurgling rattle from the kitchen. With Hero's help, they both made it to see Sunny. He was lying in a pool of his own blood, limbs at all angles, and a crimson wound in his chest.  
  
Something.  
  
She watched as the past Mari told Hero to never say that Sunny had killed himself. He was the one who had fallen down the stairs tonight. They had to protect the others, if they knew Sunny had killed himself after an accident...  
  
No. If they knew she had killed Sunny. She was always yelling at him. She brushed off the time his fingers bled from playing. She was the perfectionist that held them both to such a standard. She had pushed him farther than anyone else had and never listened in return. She had extra classes and clubs and food to make and a little brother to appease and parents to make proud and gifts to buy and a relationship to hide and-!  
  
She had pushed into him too much. She was responsible for his death, as sure as if she had held the knife. If she had been that much more disciplined to not even take a step forward, to hold her tongue, Sunny might be alive. She might have had a chance.  
  
The past three days she had just begun to think about setting them free. She and Hero weren't just some second group of parents. The more the others called her a friend, and not just Mari, the more they had made themselves available, the more they went out of their way to check on her and her feelings, the more she felt that maybe, just maybe, they would listen to her too.  
  
"You always do this." Nieta said from behind Mari. "Basil just lost his grandmother, and now you're going to open this old wound? You're despicable." Nieta's voice was always dispassionate. "Feelings are dangerous. That's why I exist. Do you want proof? Just a few days of trying and you can almost feel like you deserve to be with them. Then what happens when it all comes crashing down? Basil just lost his grandmother. Tear his friends apart with a new revelation and you'll be responsible for his death. Because you couldn't hold it in. Because you wanted attention."  
  
Nieta drew within a few inches of Mari.  
  
"All you're good for is your image. We won't be here tomorrow anyway. Let me protect it... _and stop controlling my dreams_."  
  
Mari woke with a start. No one else was awake, all sleeping soundly.  
  
Aubrey was sleeping on one end of the couch. She had rough edges but a heart full of convictions, full of care for the people who cared for her. Mari would miss her.  
  
Basil slept on the other end of the couch. He looked worn out. The boy who was skittish but held his treasured memories close at hand and heart. Mari would miss him.  
  
Kel snored loudly in his blanket on the floor. He was always impulsive, but he also carried a strong sense of right and wrong, and always fought for what he thought was good. Mari would miss him.  
  
Hero had been sleeping next to her. He always put others before himself, but he was kind and giving and the person she l-  
  
Mari would miss him.  
  
She quietly left for the night air, wandering to her street in a daze. The night sky seemed to tumble overhead. She knew the way back home. One foot, the other foot. She saw vague images of her dreams. Giant tulips and space pirates. Crocodiles at a campus. The Magical Hearts... Then finally Kel, Aubrey, and Basil. All in their pajamas and bluish, dreamy tones. They were all playing in her front yard as Sunny and Hero came out to join their picnic. She smiled blankly and went into her house. To the backyard.  
  
Mari was moving tomorrow.  
  
She easily passed the living room, through the glass door and over to the tree with the stuck-out branch. Her heart was hammering in her chest but her hands were steady. She had done this many times before, hadn't she? To wake up? The old jump rope by the tree, the last toy that was left out as if by providence. Mari tied it into a loop one one end, and then the other around the branch. She would need a box. There were plenty inside, she would just grab one really quick.  
  
Sunny was standing there. The bluish, well-dressed one from her dreams. He stepped into the moonlight, though, and became the paler boy. The one in the conservatory.  
  
"Oh... I'll see you soon, Sunny."  
  
"Is this really what you want?"  
  
"It's what I have to do."  
  
"It isn't."  
  
Mari looked back to the noose. "It's what I have to do."  
  
\---A noose swings in the breeze. Would you like to hang yourself? Y/Y---  
  
Hero woke up and stretched. Sometimes he had a hard time sleeping, tonight was one of those nights. He was having a dream about the time he was doing cannonballs with Sunny and Kel. This time though, Mari was there instead of Sunny, she froze and fell into the lake, causing Sunny to dive in after her. Neither surfaced. Hero dove in after them, only to find Something at the bottom of the lake. It grasped him and pulled him in.  
  
He shook his head and sighed, wondering if the others had the same problems. As if trying to look into their dreams, he looked at each in turn. His eyes stopped at the front door. A pale boy stood there, looking at him with a familiar distant expression. He turned and left through the front door, without opening it. In a fluster he was about to wake the others when he noticed Mari wasn't at his side. He thought, for a moment, to wake the others, but with what they had been through in the last three days...  
  
Mari was right, he had to take care of them. He quietly got up and left, finding the specter taking a right turn. Unease kept building. Why him, now of all times? Ever since Sunny died, he'd been seeing things every so often. It's why he couldn't bear to cook. Occasionally the floor would be a sea of red so vivid that he could smell it. Or he'd see the reflection of Something he didn't know the name for in a knife. It was only very recently that he could bear to stomach it. That he could put it down long enough to be the responsible one again. Just as he saw Mari for the first time in years, too. Old feelings and memories made a tangle out of his heart, and he wasn't sure what it was he was supposed to be feeling.

Only now, he felt like he knew. Trepidation. Something about this night felt wrong, like it would weave into the cracks in anyone's mind. He hadn't always been the type to think of those sorts of thoughts, but after all he had seen... It changed him a little.  
  
The specter had led him to her house. Of course. Was she here because she needed her bed? Because she couldn't stand being far from home for so long? Or was it because..?  
  
The door was open. He saw her through the sliding glass door. He felt relieved to see her standing. That relief was cut short when she turned and saw the look in her eyes. They looked almost red in the light. She had turned and was talking to someone. He raced out the door in time to see her turn to a makeshift noose.  
  
"It's what I have to do."  
  
"It isn't!! Mari!!" Hero shouted, panting heavily.  
  
"Hero..? What are you doing here?"  
  
"What am I doing here!? What are you doing here? Why is that thing in the tree? What's going on, Mari?"  
  
"... You know. If I had been the one who died, none of this would have happened. Sunny had a way of keeping everyone together, look at how fast everything ripped apart when everyone lost the person they trusted to listen to them."  
  
This was the first time she was talking about it in years. Hero couldn't believe his ears. He let her continue and took a cautious step forward.  
  
"I can't be the person they look up to anymore. I'm a failure in every respect. The person they love is just an image. She's gone now. She has been for awhile."  
  
"That's not true... They're still there, they all still love you, the real you..."  
  
"The person who murdered their Sunny?"  
  
"Mari..." Hero took another step closer.  
  
"Hey... I see what you're doing." Mari reached into her pocket and pulled out the box cutter. It gleamed in the moonlight like ice.  
  
"Please Mari, put that away. Let's talk."  
  
"The person who does this to herself?" She rolled up her right sleeve. There were more scars than Hero remembered. Some were new.  
  
Hero felt like she was getting farther and farther away from him. He instinctively took another step.  
  
Mari blankly slashed at her arm. "The person who calls out for attention when everyone else is suffering more?"  
  
Hero took two steps forward. The blood running down her arm seemed to join more that was pooling at her feet, dripping from the noose behind her.  
  
"The person that doesn't deserve someone as good as you all?" She took a step back.  
  
Another two steps. Hero fought hard to control his breathing.  
  
"...The person who doesn't deserve to be forgiven..." She went a little limp.  
  
Hero was nearly in arm's reach.  
  
"Stop right there." Mari held the blade to her neck. She had a pained, wild smile on her face. Tears just barely gathered in the corners of her eyes. Hero could see that she was breathing at a wild pace. He could practically hear her heart. Or was that his own?  
  
"This needs to happen. I need to leave. Then everyone will stay peaceful, and I'll just move away."  
  
"...No." Hero gained a determined look to his eyes. "I won't hide that from them. You deserve better than that. We deserve better than that. They're our friends, think about it, Mari! Why are you lying to them about what you're about to do!? It's because you love them!! As much as they love you!"  
  
Mari stood still for a moment. Her eyes seemed to regain some piece of their luster, some spark of emotion. A moment was all Hero needed. He closed the distance in a heartbeat and took Mari's left hand in his own holding the blade up and away from her. But her grip on it was surprising strong for someone who hadn't left her house in so long, she simply wouldn't relinquish it.  
  
"Let go!!" She shouted. It wasn't anger, she was suddenly afraid of losing her blade.  
  
"No. Please Mari, stop it!"  
  
"This is for all of you..." It wasn't happy memories that she was thinking of, this was an emotionless decision to her.  
  
"Please... Let go, I don't want you to get hurt!"  
  
"I have to... I have to... I have too... You can see it too, can't you..? Something... Something all at our feet. Something that won't stop..!" It wasn't sorrow, Hero could hear the stress from Mari, she was completely frayed.  
  
Mari's eyes were somehow both wild and blank all at once. The world seemed to fade into shades of black and white, and the red all around their feet. Mari couldn't move the hand Hero held the blade in. He would win, he would save her this time.  
  
She looked desperately at the blade, and jumped for it.  
  
Half of Mari's vision went black. She could feel tears running down her left side. She wiped her eye to find red. Mari looked back to Hero, back to his panicked face. She felt her legs go weak, and dropped into a position where Hero cradled her.  
  
"You... deserve... better..."  
  
"Mari!! Mari no... No! Can't you tell, I only wanted----"  
  
Her senses were taken over by darkness. A steady beeping noise overtook her. She felt the world drop away.  
  
\---Everything is going to be okay...---

Mari was in Faraway. More specifically, she was standing in a crosswalk. Home was one of these ways. She really wanted to go home. She checked herself. She wearing her usual clothes, and felt her hair brush the back of her knees. There were no scars on her arms though, and her left eye wasn't... well it was there. Maybe she would see something familiar, to help her find-  
  
Mewo? Sunny always really loved that cat. More often than not he acted like her too. Sleeping wherever, and somehow seeming bored and curious in equally endless amounts. Mari decided. Mewo new the way home. She always did.  
  
Her home. Hero's house was on the way home. She always loved being there. Hero's parents always seemed eager to see her and Sunny. They often overlooked, if not outright approved, Hero and Mari being so close with one another. It was a warm place, as warm as her own could be. Or was.  
  
When she came up to her house, she found Hero standing in the driveway. Not the apron-wearing Hero of dreams.  
  
"Hi Mari." He gave a small smile. "You've been on a long journey, but you found your home again now."  
  
Hero shuffled his feet a bit.  
  
"I don't know if I ever said this to you, but I'm sorry for not being there for you. I feel like if I had been, maybe things might have turned out differently. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't been late to come over. Or if I had seen him first... If I had been more responsible, I guess. But we're.... We're not even that much older than any of them. Sometimes it's easy to forget that they're not our responsibilities, they're our relationships. They take just as much work, but it's a two-way street. Maybe if I had learned that even a few minutes earlier, you would be okay now.  
  
"All the pain we've kept hidden away has been leaking out into everything we do. There's no real way to keep a lid on it. Aubrey, Kel, and Basil are all good friends, I'm sure they would want you to forgive yourself too, and forgive us for keeping the truth from them.  
  
"Sorry, I guess I'm going on a bit, huh? At the end of the day, it's you who decides what'll happen here. I wish I could swoop in and save you, but I think we both know that's not quite how life turns out. People choose their own way forward. But I'll be cheering for you."  
  
Hero gave a smile and began to walk away. But turned and crossed the distance between them in two steps, and wrapped Mari in a hug. Just like he used to.  
  
"Let's meet again, and see lots of new things together. Maybe I'll even get to cook new, yummy food for you. I hope I can."  
  
Hero walked to his house, leaving Mari on her driveway. She entered her own house.  
  
The first thing she noticed was the sound of a violin. It was her house again. With the off-green couch, and the television that everyone used to watch cartoons around. A picture of her mom, her dad, Sunny, and herself hung on the wall. Sunny was a newborn in this one, and Mari was much much smaller. She remembered how her parents had brought him home one day, her own baby brother. More pictures of Sunny lined the mantle. She noticed that he never seemed to smile in them, but she would always be. Mom used to say that she got all the smiles because Sunny gave his to her.  
  
In the dining room there was fruit on the table. She was always adamant about fresh fruit. She said it was to eat healthy but the truth was that she just liked colorful things. Eating them was a bonus. On the table, a porcelain vase was missing. Sunny had broke it while running around the house, but Mari had taken the blame for it because he was looking forward to a sleepover at Kel's place. He would sneak her candy for a week after that.  
  
Mari let herself reminisce awhile longer before following the music to the conservatory. Sunny was there, focusing on playing the violin aside the piano.  
  
"Mari... It's time. Right?" He didn't look up from his violin. "You've gone through a lot because of me. I know you said you forgive me but..." He scratched a note and sighed, looking into his big sister's eyes. "Forgiving yourself is hard. Even when other people want you to." Sunny took up his bow again and began to play. "It's easy to see everything you've done wrong. It's easy to forgive someone you love. But doing things for yourself... You'll forgive yourself too, right? You've worked hard at it."  
  
Mari stood in silence, looking at the piano. It had the word "OMORI" etched into the center. Sunny always liked that name for some reason. But there were no keys on the piano.  
  
"You know who has the keys. It will be hard to get them back but as long as you keep trying then..." Sunny put his violin down. "If you want me to play with you again, you just need to think about me. I'm here for you. If you want me to be."  
  
Mari stepped forward, then wrapped her little brother into a hug. He didn't always smile. But this time... This time he did.  
  
It was time to move along. Mari exited the house. She found herself on a long, long highway. The highway that would go to the recital hall. She began to walk. Even though rain fell, it wasn't wet at all. Mari could see scenes from before all of this in the beams of streetlights.  
  
One was of the time she brought cookies to the treehouse. She never thought they were better than Hero's, but he always insisted that there was more love in them. She did love her friends very much. Even if she didn't want to admit it, she was always glad that Hero said things like that. Playing cards like this was something she remembered very clearly. Mari reached into the beam, and her hand found a sheet of paper. Music was written on it.  
  
She continued to the next one, a memory of a time they had all gone to the beach. Kel and Aubrey were spitting watermelon seeds at one another, with Kel shouting about cooties whenever she retaliated. Mari saw the chair she imagined getting a tan in, next to the bags she and Hero had bought. She had bought hers shortly after his, hoping to match. She still remembered how Hero came over to lay down with her right after trying to out-swim Kel, and how they got to share another secret moment together. Well, secret until she had seen Basil's photos. She reached in and got another piece of music.  
  
Now the park spread out before her. Everyone was practicing making flower crowns. She had learned how and was eager to teach everyone else. Sunny and Kel had run off, and Hero was diligently, slowly practicing, but Basil and Aubrey were naturals. Flower crowns really suited Basil, even Sunny would give it his seal of approval. This scene became another sheet of music in her hands  
  
Everyone had gathered for a picnic. Kel and Aubrey had fallen asleep, and while Sunny was laying on her lap, she felt like he was just resting his eyes a bit longer after waking. Basil took a photo and complained that Hector had ruined it a little, he'd have to tape over that part. She and Hero watched over everyone else while lightly touching hands. This scene, too, turned to music.  
  
Mari saw a scene where she was walking down a hallway at school. A boy with hair as messy as ever was crying in the hallway. She asked him what was wrong, and he explained how he was teased for his grades. First she tried to cheer him up by saying that studying was easy, but it turned out he was being called a nerd for scoring too high. This is where she met Henry, who would one day be called Hero after devouring an entire sandwich a year later. This was the day they learned that they were next door neighbors. Another sheet of music fell to her.  
  
It was Sunny's birthday. Mewo was running around the house like the wild kitten she always was. Mari and Hero had worked together to get him a gigantic building block set, but all day long, he would play with the box, eventually napping in it along with the kitten. Sunny never seemed especially excited if you looked at his face alone, but in his actions, you cold see how content he was alongside all of his friends. This too, was another sheet.  
  
The recital was ahead. Mari checked the notes on her sheet music. It was a waltz. Her favorite waltz. She hadn't needed sheet music for this song in a long time, instead she gave it to Sunny to show him how the measures went together, how they meshed with one another. She gripped the music tight, and entered the hall ahead.  
  
She was backstage of the recital hall. Mari always felt nervous being here. All of her practice made her a strong player, but mistakes do happen. It was hard to tell if tonight would be a fluke or not. Kel, Aubrey, and Basil all stood before her. They were all shorter.  
  
They were all how she remembered them from four years ago.  
  
Aubrey wore a pink dress that matched her ribbon, while Basil wore his old blue overalls. Kel had an orange shirt with a cat stamped on it. Aubrey was the first to notice the new friend's arrival.  
  
"Mari! You made it!" She cheered a bit and stood alongside her two friends. "After this point, it's up to you... So..." Aubrey looked to the other two as they nodded. "I was always scared of losing my friends. I never had any that stuck before you guys. When Kel said he thought I was just a thug, or Basil pushed his album to me like he was going away... I thought I was right. But the way you kept everyone together, and always did things with me to make me feel closer, I felt like I had a place to belong."  
  
Kel stepped forward. "I've been really thickheaded lately... But even then, after years apart, you and Hero helped me and made sure that I had the chance to make up with everyone. You've done a lot for me, and I want to do the same because... You're all my best friends."  
  
"Mari." Basil started. "You've always been really good at taking the lead and being someone we all look up to. But it's okay to cry too, when you need to. We'll all be there for you. I believe I can be.  
  
Mari took another look at the three friends, and found that their appearances changed to match the voices she heard. Slightly older, as she's seen them in town recently.  
  
"We're cheering for you, Mari, we hope you'll come back to us."  
  
She wasn't sure if one of them said it, or all of them did. But she approached the stage. There was a piano there, alongside a music stand. There were only enough keys to play the first few notes of the duet she had loved.  
  
Each one struck its way deeper and deeper into her heart. Farther than the words and actions of the past three days. The final one at long last, broke the shell around her heart.  
  
Mari was crying. Tears fell from her eyes as the few memories she elicited had come calling for her. She cried until her vision had gone white. Something had dragged her away from all of this feeling in her heart. Not Something, but something. Something she had to go and face now.  
  
Mari was in White Space again. There were no meager furnishings this time. Only Nieta standing opposite her.  
  
"You... Coward." Nieta said.  
  
"...I'm not the coward here. I was, but I can't be anymore."  
  
"Do you think they'll accept you back? With what you are?"  
  
Mari firmly took one step forward. "I don't know."  
  
"Maybe that's because you forgot." Nieta extended an arm and piano keys rose up. She pointed and one hurled itself towards Mari. As it struck she heard a voice. Her voice.  
  
_You're better than that, Sunny._  
  
It stung, it hurt her right down to her newly exposed core. She took another step.  
  
"This is you." Another was flung.  
  
_Well!? Answer me!_  
  
Mari took another step, she wouldn't be deterred now.  
  
"Not like me. I never say these things."  
  
_You messed me up, now I have to start all over again!_  
  
Another step.  
  
"I always care. I always fix everyone's problems. I never get angry or sad and need their help." Now she sent a flurry out. Each one brought more and more of the words she had used in the final months.  
  
She took another step. She was next to Nieta now. Mari had no box cutter or jump rope or knife. She merely punched. Nieta went down to the single blow, closing her eyes. She then rose, and leapt back further into White Space.  
  
Nieta did not succumb. More keys flew at her like hail, more hurtful words, more hand waves, more excuses to ignore someone.  
  
"This is you. No burdens to take on. No goodness."  
  
Mari took two more steps. Two more keys hit her. She didn't need to be told that it was her. It was her! It was just as much her as any other part! She reached Nieta again and gave her the hardest punch she could manage. There was a sickening snapping sound, and her opponent went limp.  
  
Nieta did not succumb.  
  
"Fine then." She raised her arms and white was dyed in red. They were in Mari's backyard. A noose hung from Sunny's favorite tree. The shadow showed a noose as well, but with something dangling in it. Rounded at the top, and drooping to three points below. Mari knew it was her. It was meant to be her. More keys caught her by surprise, each chipping away at her.  
  
"You say you're responsible for everyone, but it's just for your own ego." Nieta snapped and tendrils of hair caught Mari's legs.  
  
Mari fought them and found no purchase.  
  
"You're sick. Everything is a grade to you."  
  
Mari fought as she was struck by more of her own hurtful words.  
  
"You're just a lie. Everyone loves a lie you made up."  
  
Mari ripped free and took several more stabs into her heart to level another lethal punch.  
  
Nieta will not succumb.  
  
"You belong up there. They would be free of your constant manipulations."  
  
Mari struggled and fell to one knee. More tangles of hair held her in place.  
  
"You belong at the bottom of the stairs. The wrong person died that night."  
  
Mari fought and tore but could not.  
  
Nieta stared blankly at her prone target. Then readied the last keys she had orbiting her.  
  
"Aubrey loved Sunny, and you killed him." _Just leave me alone!_  
  
"Kel loved Sunny, and you killed him." _Sunny, you've barely practiced at all!_

"Basil loved Sunny, and you killed him." _I'm glad you barely speak if that's what you have to say for yourself!_  
  
"Hero loved Sunny, and you made him watch as you killed him." _It's cram stuff, you don't get it, I can't be there!_  
  
"You say you loved Sunny, but you killed him." _Look at what you did, this is all your fault!!_  
  
The last one embedded itself into her life a knife. Mari grit her teeth... And collapsed. The world fell to darkness.  
  
Every key was another line. Every key was her worst moments. She had taken all of them. It was simply too much to breathe, let alone stand. Sunny must have been so scared and alone, and she hadn't listened. No. She hadn't talked to him. About anything she was going through. About anything that mattered to her. Did it even matter now? Nieta was right, wasn't she? She wasn't emotionally involved, she had none to speak of. Mari had made her that way. She watched her solve all of her problems perfectly, never letting anyone come to harm. What did Mari have, ultimately? Feelings? Feelings didn't do her a lot of good with the layer of ice building around her heart. At least it soothed the hurts of each insult-laden piano key she had taken. And she had taken all of them.  
  
She had _taken_ all of them.  
  
They were hers. But it was still only half. Never the full story. Never complete without its other half. Mari reached around in the dark and found the music sheets with her. They weren't hers. She knew hers by heart, after all.  
  
He asked for forgiveness... But would he ever forgive her?  
  
One last try.  
  
Mari got up in the scarlet replica, watching Nieta as she stood silently by the noose. Mari raised her arms, and the stage she was on before came back. The piano fully remade itself, key by key, as she put the music onto the stand.  
  
"...If you're perfect... I don't... want it... anymore..." She panted out the words, watching the lonely figure under the noose. Mari sat at her piano, and began with a flourish.  
  
She was scared. Scared of what would happen after the first few notes. But she didn't care for a flawless rendition. Just playing would be enough.  
  
Tears fell freely as the violin joined her after the first line. She didn't dare to look back, instead letting her mind fill with images of her friends. Of her brother coming home for the first time. Of the day they met Hero and Kel. Of consoling the girl they would know as Aubrey. Of the day Basil had been brought to them. Of flowers planted together and come to bloom. Of lazy days and silly fights, Of picnics and parties. Of saving her brother. Of Mari smiling happily across from Hero. Her Hero. Of Sunny, playing the violin behind her as though he had never left.  
  
Of Sunny's funeral, and his last sleeping face.  
  
Mari played the concluding note and wiped her eyes. Nieta was sitting on the bench next to her. Just staring at her in the endless white space the piano and Mari had found their way to. Mari leaned into her, and slumped onto Nieta's shoulder.  
  
"I see." Nieta said. She put an arm around Mari, and gave her a hug. A final hug.  
  
\---A white door stands before you. It is time to go.---  
  
Mari woke. Her left eye hurt, a lot. She couldn't see out of it. Her arms hurt. Her scars were full on display in the hospital gown. Her back hurt, she was sure someone who had changed her could see. But more than all of that, the last notes of her favorite waltz played. That hurt most of all. Right down to her heart, where it lurched and turned, and finally, after four years, came out. Mari cried. Mari honestly cried without holding back. She let out as many tears as she could.  
  
When her tears had finally subsided, she removed herself from her bed. She struggled at first, things looked strange with what she would have to one day accept would be her new vision. One step, and then another. One foot in front of the other. Someone else needed her help right now.  
  
She opened the door and found them all outside. Basil, Aubrey, Kel, and Hero sitting in a chair. His eyes were the most red out of anyone. It looked like he hadn't slept in a very, very long time. The four of them all looked at her with stupefied expressions.  
  
Mari gathered her thoughts. She wasn't hiding anything anymore. She took a breath, and in the strongest voice she could manage in her state, she said...  
  
"I have to tell you something."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, that was... a very long piece for me. I'm going to ramble, you can totally ignore me down here
> 
> First, why Nieta? Because it sounds like "NEET" and seemed like something that could reasonably be embossed on a violin.
> 
> This whole project started as wondering what the climax of OMORI would be like if it was Mari who lived and Sunny who died, and it just kept getting bigger, and bigger until it all burst out into this. It was fun to imagine what might be different between the two scenarios. Well I say fun, but also heartbreaking. Kel unknowingly lost a partner in crime and was the one to nearly kill Aubrey in this au, because of the changes in his schedule due to Sunny not being around. Aubrey still feels abandoned, but I always thought she looked up to Mari. She didn't dye her hair this time because it was something she wanted to do with Mari, and wasn't hanging out with her gang because she was studying to go to Mari's college. Stepping up to someone's level. Of course, Mari isn't going to college, so you can imagine how that must have seemed... But Basil, even if his circumstances are worse, seems more stable when he's not holding onto enough guilt to induce hallucinations. Having to be alone must have been hard for him, but he also wants to be at his best for the Sunny in his memories, eventually. Or, that's what I thought.  
> Taking cooking away from Hero out of a fear of knives and kitchens was totally hard to do, honestly. But it's where he saw the most traumatic thing, and he can't tell anyone what he really, really saw. 
> 
> Anyway I'm done rambling, writing parallels and what-ifs is always a lot of fun.


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